


A Touch of Evil

by nomisupernova, official_bill_murray



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Abusive Dave's Bro | Beta Dirk Strider, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Background DirkJake, Dirk Strider and Dave's Bro Aren't the Same Person, Dysfunctional Family, F/F, Humanstuck, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Minor Rose Lalonde/Kanaya Maryam, More plot than originally intended, Non-Quadrant Relationships, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Parent/Child Incest, SBURB/SGRUB, Sexual Abuse, Time Travel, Trans Dave Strider, Underage Rape/Non-con, alternate universe shenanigans
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-12
Updated: 2018-04-17
Packaged: 2019-03-03 20:13:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 12
Words: 41,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13348668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nomisupernova/pseuds/nomisupernova, https://archiveofourown.org/users/official_bill_murray/pseuds/official_bill_murray
Summary: In Which A Young Man Named Dave Strider Attempts To Have A Normal Life Despite Ongoing Abuse Leading To What One Can Only Describe As Time And Alternate Universe Shenanigans.(On hiatus, but I still plan on finishing it)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [M.C. Escher that's my favourite MC](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10556322) by [Unda](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unda/pseuds/Unda). 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter revised 3/12/2018.

"Shhhhh, do you hear that? It sounds like someone is hiding, are you hiding, Dave?" you hear Bro talking loudly in the hallway. You huddle closer into the back of the closet, pulling your pile of clothes tighter to yourself for camouflage.

"Dave, come on. I made you something." he says with impatience, "Don't you wanna see, little man?"

You’re not going to lie, you want to scream for help. But you know it’s fruitless. The neighbors won’t hear or care. You don’t have your phone on you and you don’t have a computer either. You haven’t since Bro barged in and wrecked it a week ago.

You think for a moment, trying to plot some kind of escape.

"Can I get out? I could run to the door. No, no... he'd catch me. The window? No, you'll fall and die or worse, he'll catch you if you don't get moving fast enough. I could attack him. Hmm. I do have a sword, he's strong but I've got a lot of stamina."

You make sure to be as careful as possible when you peak out from underneath the pile. He's not in here, thank god. He's still looking everywhere else, making a fucking game out of it.

_"Fuck,"_ you bite your lip as you remember your sword is out in the living room. Of fucking course.

"Dave. Lil Cal wants to talk to you, don't you love Cal anymore, Dave?" he does his best to sound sad about it.

_"No, I do_ **_not_ ** _fucking love that thing,"_ you think.

"He's been telling me some things about you, Dave. Like that you've been a piece of shit to him," his voice is getting louder, he's getting closer.

"I know you're in there," he whispers hoarsely, "If you come out now, I'll go easy on you. I swear."

He makes a point. He always is less of a douchebag if you just come out and take your beating.

"I'll give you ten seconds to decide," you hear metal clanking against your doorknob. Fucking bullshit keys.

"Ten."

Your breath hitches in your throat, you'd give anything to leave and never look back.

"Nine."

You feel your legs tingling with fear, your heart starts to race.

"Eight."

You shove all the clothes off of yourself and pull a stray shirt over your head.

"Seven."

You drag a comb through your hair, checking it in the mirror. Gotta look cool as always.

"Six."

You steady your breathing, slap your cheeks a bit so you won't look like you're scared shitless.

"Five."

When was the last time you ate? Probably a day ago at school. That's good. More than usual, you suppose.

"Four."

You pull your shoes on and tie them quickly.

"Three."

You stand in front of the door and take another deep breath.

"Two."

You slide your sunglasses onto your nose.

"One."

You unlock the bedroom door and open it.

 

"Why are you ignoring me, Dave?" he asks, looking down at you, his expression is readable even behind his glasses. Disgust. Anger. And... ugh, you feel sick.

"Sorry dude, I was getting dressed," you try not to make it obvious that you were cowering in fear and still are, just internally now.

He pockets the keys, his other hand is busy coddling Lil Cal. You think for a moment about being coddled like that, loved even. You used to think he loved you like that until...

You swallow hard, trying to keep the fear down.

He throws your sword at you, you catch it, being careful not to touch the blade, it's pretty fucking sharp and you don't want a revisit of four months ago.

"Let's fucking go, shitstick." he sets Cal gently on his desk and points his thumb toward the front door.

You wish Jade never told you that your older brother hurting you like that wasn’t normal.

* * *

 

"Finished already?" he stretches his arms skyward, sun glinting off his porcelain skin. It'd be more olive like yours but he has more “albinic traits” or some stupid shit Rose pinged off your brain when you were tired.

"Yeah, dude, I'm fucking beat. And I'm hungry as fuck," you use your shirt, which is now in shreds, to wipe your face off.

"Pizza?" he asks, but he already has his phone out dialing.

"Four meat, bacon, not that stupid Canadian bullshit either," you answer, walking down the stairs back into the apartment.

You sneak a glance at his desktop, it’s unlocked. Your phone is probably nearby somewhere. You’re sure he's expecting you to look for it.

You rummage around for a bit, sifting through piles of swords and puppet asses. Ah, there. It's in the blender next to some green douchebag with the most bulbous ass you've ever seen, you can see the camera lense glinting in his eye. You unplug the blender, safety first, then you reach in and pluck out your phone.

It's unharmed and still locked. His desktop starts pinging like crazy, Delirious Biznasty is practically shitting itself with message beeps. Like it just ate a Five-Alarm beefy bean burrito, _beep beep, bitch,_ time to spend an hour with the porcelain god himself. Time to meet your maker.

You smile, that was pretty rad. You make your way over to the desktop to see what the fuss is about.  


TA: Crazy dude, he just gonna stick his hand in there?

GT: Oh fuck, I was hoping to see some gore.

TC: Lame shit man, shoulda duct taped the plug in the socket and put a motion sensor on the damn thing.  


Creeps.

Of fucking course he's broadcasting the house's security footage live now, because there are just no real boundaries to avoid. At least he doesn't have any cameras in the bathroom.

You swallow hard, jesus, he's broadcasting your every move. You know for a fact there are cameras in the bedrooms. You look into the closest camera and flip it off.

"Pizza's here," Bro is down the stairs, Cal is plopped over his shoulder like a parrot on pirate island, "Catch." He throws his wallet at you.

You hitch a ride in the apartment building's elevator with the neighbours kid, on his way to soccer practise or something, ‘cuz those are serious cleats.

"Yo," he says, eying you for a sec before smiling to himself. You make a non-committal sound before hopping off at the first floor, he stays in, probably going down to the basement parking garage.

"Sup," you say to the pizza guy.

"17.13, little man," he says, sounding weird, like he's holding back a laugh.

"Twenty, keep the change," you pass him the bill like it's the Declaration of Independence and you’re Nick Cage, ‘bout to pop that shit in the oven and discover the secret map on the back.

"Tell Derick I said nice camera quality. Really lets you see _all_ the details," he coughs once, "Sorry, 'broooo'." he moans it long and hard.

"Whatever man. Glad you're enjoying it. Creeps like y'all give us enough to pay to live in a decent place like this." you respond and take the pizza out of his hands.

He gets in his piece of shit car and revs the engine before taking off down the road.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god, I just re-read this now and I really hate the way some of it is written, but I'm not going to change it much. The first chapter was written in December of 2016 and I only got around to writing this fic more in November of 2017. So you're going to notice a tonal shift as I started taking this piece more seriously.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter revised 3/12/2018

You set the pizza on the table and grab a slice or three before you run off to your bedroom, your phone is warm against your leg. The pesterchum app lights up like Christmas day, Rose sends you one very long paragraph, you skim it and then decide to read it later. Jade hasn't said anything to you in a week.

You consider messaging her for a second, then decide its best not to after what you said to her. Too awkward right now. Instead of dealing with that, you pop open a bottle of AJ from your stash under the table that your mixing gear is on. Shit's getting dusty, now that you're looking at it. You’re gonna have to clean it up before Dirk, your half brother, comes over and lets you have it for having a messy room.

You decide to haul your skinny ass up on the bed and chill for a sec. Back hurts like hell, but that shouldn't be a problem after you shower later. The hot water always helped better than any pain pill did. As you start to zone out staring at the window, your phone lights up. It's Jade. You open up your phone and take a look at her messages from the last week.

GG: sorry dave, but...  
GG: dave, are you okay?  
GG: dave??  
GG: dave...  
GG: hey, look, just say something and tell me you're okay?  
GG: dave, you're not mad at me, are you?  
GG: dave please, i'm sorry.  
GG: i was only trying to help.  
GG: dave?!  
GG: i'll assume you're ignoring me and that you're not hurt?  
GG: just... please don't be mad at me.  
GG: i couldn't just sit by and say nothing, david!!  
GG: look... we can just pretend i didn't say anything if it'd make you feel better?  
GG: dave, are you there?

And you finally get to her most recent one.

GG: it says you're online, please message me back.

You prop your phone up by your pinkies and try your best to chill her out.

turntechGodhead [TG] began pestering gardenGnostic [GG]

TG: hey  
GG: oh JESUS dave!! you haven't said anything in a week!! i've been worried sick about you!! D:  
TG: sorry dude  
TG: ive been really busy  
GG: yeah, right dave! honestly!! ://  
GG: i don't expect you to tell me everything but at least don't openly lie!!  
TG: ok i just didnt have my phone for the last few days  
TG: but before that i was kinda ignoring you  
TG: sorry  
GG: thank you for telling the truth, you butt. :I  
GG: sorry for thinking you were avoiding me so much on purpose.  
TG: its cool man  
TG: so...  
GG: so...  
GG: ... how are you feeling?  
TG: tired honestly  
TG: dont think ive slept right since we last talked  
TG: also i need a shower like a bird needs a nest man  
TG: god  
GG: well i think i can handle giving you a while to shower! go shower!! :0  
GG: please message me when you get a chance though? i worry about you, dave.  
TG: aight  
TG: ttyl jade

turntechGodhead [TG] has ceased pestering gardenGnostic [GG]

Alright, now that you've chilled Jade out, you can go take a much needed shower. You grab your towels out of your closet and head over to the bathroom. "He wouldn't put cameras in here, that makes no fucking sense. He doesn't want people seeing him showering." you comfort yourself with that thought.

You undress briskly and check out the damage in the mirror on the door. Not too bad, you guess. Mostly some long sword-shaped bruises and some scrapes on your upper-back from sliding against the roof's asphalt. Not the worst you've gotten. It sure as hell ain't shit compared to what you know is coming tonight after your royally shitty breakdown earlier in the closet. You frown a bit at that thought, feeling suddenly disgusting. You step into the shower and try not to think about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter because I've got big ideas for the next one.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for a CSA scene, not super graphic but I'm still going to warn you here in case you missed the tags for some reason. Please do not read if this type of thing upsets you.

After toweling off, you hit the lock button on your phone so you can check the time. 8:57PM. You sigh, don't suppose there's any real reason to stay awake any later since you work best at the shitty early hours of the morning. You grab your toothbrush off the back of the sink and get busy brushing your teeth. You try not to think about how drunk Bro probably is right now. He always has a beer with his pizza and one beer is never one beer. You spit in the sink and wipe your mouth with the towel. After stalling long enough, you finally open the bathroom door and step out into the hallway.

You can see Bro tapping away at his keyboard, writing something down in a WordPad document. At least he's busy, so maybe he'll leave you the fuck alone. You also notice he's formed a pile of cans and bottles next to his chair, mostly beer of course, it’s his favorite after all. You shake your head a little at that. His glasses are perched on his head so you can actually see his eyes clearly, but the question is can he see you clearly? You smell his breath from all the way over here, and beer isn’t a particularly nice smell. He glances over to you and then starts typing faster.

"Change?" he says, his eyes trained to his computer screen.

"Gave it to the pizza dude." you answer while rubbing the towel you’re holding through your hair.

He hums flatly and chews at his bottom lip, "'Kay."

He redirects his full attention to whatever he's doing so you take that as your cue to leave. After you're in your room, you lock your bedroom door behind you and lean against it. You exhale deeply and try to figure out what to do about Jade, or rather, what not to do about Jade. At least she didn’t go telling everyone what she saw.

She shouldn't have been Googling your Bro's name in the first place, it's not your fault that she saw his website. It was locked and passworded for adults only anyway, it really wasn't her business, so why should you have to deal with that?

You run your hands through your hair.

" _Then again, he shouldn't be doing that shit with a minor and posting it for everyone to see,_ " you think.

You put on your pajama pants and crack open the door, "G'night," you say to Bro.

"G'night," he parrots back to you.

You flick off the light-switch and put your phone on the charger next to your bed.

After you're comfortable, you pull the blanket over your head and steady your breathing. Maybe if you pretend to be asleep he'll fuck off?

Ten minutes pass, then twenty more. Thirty minutes becomes forty-five.

" _Maybe you got lucky?_ " you sigh with relief and close your eyes.

 

You're just about to nod off when you're awoken with a jolt at the sound of the door knob turning. And then keys unlocking it, the door opening and closing, but not locking after a minute.  
You wince and squeeze your eyes shut for a moment and tug the blanket up to your eyes, but not covering them because you need to see your enemy at all times.

Jesus dick, he's breathing really softly and shit, like he always does when he busts into your room at night. It's making your brain do... god, what did Rose call it...? Whatthefuckever.

He stands there for a bit, it's too dark in the room for him to see you peeking at him from under your blanket. He's... watching you. Fucking creep.

"I know you're not sleeping," he says flatly.

You hold still, so so so still. You don't move an inch. You can feel something stirring in the pit of your stomach, like you're going to throw up or scream.

He just stands there and pockets his keys. Shit.

"Dave," fuck that soft voice bullshit. Like a fucking cheetah luring prey into a field by laying all low and shit in the grass. Ready to pounce on a motherfucker as soon as he hops on by. Say goodnight to your breathing privileges mister.

You watch him kneel down and put his elbows onto your bed, making the mattress dip awkwardly.

He runs a hand through his hair and sighs. He takes the same hand and slowly... so fucking slow, he touches your face. He starts at the bottom of your chin and drags his rough fingers up and over your cheek and into your hair.

"I felt you flinch," he says in a low rumbling tone. Well, shit, the jig is up.

You pull away from his hand, not too smart. He grips onto your hair, not exactly pulling it, but he sure isn't being gentle either.

"I'm not going to hurt you, calm down," he whispers.

Your brain is screaming, " _Yes, yes you fucking are!!!!_ " but you say nothing and lay there helplessly.

You really wish you could just disappear, just fucking blink out of existence right there.

He stands back up and pulls at your blanket. You hate this part. He presses a finger to your lips, as if to say "Shhh." Like anyone would even listen or care if you screamed. He grips your face by your cheeks, forcing your lips to pucker forward. You feel disgusting and you wince when his face smashes into yours. You can taste the alcohol on his lips, like you always do when he comes in here like this. He's starting to tug his belt clumsily when you swallow the lump in your throat and finally speak.

"You know this is wrong, you don’t have to do this," you still haven't given up trying to convince him.

He stares at you and for a second you see the brother you used to play with as a kid, somewhere deep in his eyes, you can still see him. It's only for a second, though, it always is.

He starts to talk gently to you, "Dave I-"

"Please... just..." you pause to take a breath, "Don't... don't talk."

 

He's at least nice enough to shut up for now.

When he yanks the blanket up and climbs into it, you're vaguely aware of the feeling of the waistband of your pants sliding down, but your mind isn't exactly working. It's hard to place the feeling on one word. It's like you're watching yourself from inside of your brain and in front of you, and nothing feels real. You can't deny what you know comes next.

Bro is placing sloppy messy lips on every inch of your skin, mumbling incoherently to nobody in particular.

You can smell the beer on his breath... gross.

Whatever daze you were in is quickly snapped when you feel his nails on your thighs, your pants are lost somewhere in the blankets, which is unceremoniously on the floor in a heap. You try not to look at him but you're really scared and you don't know what he's going to do.

He laughs, a deep rumbling sound in his throat, "I've... I've never touched you here... I wonder what that's like?"

Oh god, oh god, please be joking. Please be joking.

"You shouldn't..." your head starts to spin.

"Come on, Dave... why would you have one if... nobody was ever supposed to touch it?" his fingers are dangerously close.

"That's not the damn point and you know that, can't you just do what you usually do?" you snap before you can catch yourself.

He stares at you, as if he really can't believe what you just said to him. The tension in the air is unbearably palpable.

"I call you by the name you want and this is the thanks I get?" his other hand grips the soft skin of your thighs too hard, you can feel the bruises starting to form under the pressure.  
"I don't tell anyone about this shit and you just threaten me like that! What the fuck is your deal, Bro!" you're getting too worked up, he's noticed how raw you're feeling.

His eyes narrow and he reaches for your face, you flinch preemptively for your slap in the face but... he doesn't smack you.

No, instead he grabs your hair and yanks you into a kneeling position.

“Turn around. Now.” he hisses in your ear.

You comply, but he still has an iron grip in your hair, so it hurts to turn around. He lets go of your hair and slides his hand down to your neck and shoves your face down in the pillows. You can feel his knees dig into your legs and you squeeze your eyes shut. Your thoughts and feelings float away from you. You unfortunately remember what Rose called it; dissociating.  
You’re aware that something is happening, but your brain feels like it’s floating in ice water and your arms feel like jello. You think about smoking weed with your buddies behind the school, giggling and passing the pipe to each other. They all cheered and hooted for you when you held it in longer than anyone else. You think about that cute kid in your science class who has a keen eye for the bruises and cuts on your arms, but promised you that he wouldn’t tell anyone until you said it was okay.

What did he say his name was? You think for a moment… Oh, that’s right. It was a weird name. He told you it a respelling of the Latin word for “crab” of all things. Karkat. He’s a short kid, a transfer student from Spain. He moved here with his dad to learn English and get into a good college.

You focus on what it felt like when he touched your arms when you ran into him in the hallway after school, he was checking to see if you needed any help with cleaning the wounds. You remember him pulling you into the bathroom and demanding that you show him your other bruises. You complied because you didn’t know what he might do if you didn’t show him. His eyes looked so sad when he touched the scars on your stomach and he hugged you and started crying.

You mentally take hold of that thought. You think about his soft, dark hands on your skin.

You breath deeply, inhaling the smell of cologne and laundry soap from your pillow. You exhale slowly and feel a horrible stinging pain that radiates in your hips and legs. You fade back into your brain, eyes fluttering open, still holding that thought tightly like a life saver in an ocean. Something sharp bites into your shoulder, it feels like teeth and honestly, it probably is. Bro is breathing into your ear, the disgusting smacking of flesh on flesh is in your other. It hurts so badly that tears well up in your eyes but you can’t help yourself or stop the feeling in between your legs. You feel your body shudder as Bro hooks his arms around you and pulls you off the bed and into his lap.

You imagine what it would feel like if Karkat was doing this instead. He would be so soft and nice with you, you think. A noise threatens to slip out of your mouth so you clench your jaw shut. A finger hooks around your lips and pulls your mouth open. Bro apparently doesn’t want you to be quiet.

You radiate with shame at the noises that spill out of your mouth and you just keep thinking about Karkat.

“Got a boyfriend or something?” Bro says in your ear.   
Fuck fuck fuck fuck. You said his name out loud.

“Boy- boyfriend? I don’t- I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.” you manage to say, albeit shaky as hell. If only Karkat would date you.

You hear him exhale and he picks up the pace. God, it hurts so much. You can’t hold it back anymore and start to sob, you feel your whole chest shaking and your legs tremble like leaves in a windstorm. Suddenly, he drops you and you land face first into your pillow. You grab it and shove it over your ears, you just want the sounds to stop.

Bro digs into your back with one hand, you can hear that he’s finishing himself off behind you. Now you feel something familiar, something wet and sticky on your back. He sinks back down into the bed and you hear him yank his shirt off and it lands your back.

  
He speaks after a minute, “Clean up and go to sleep.”

You peak out of the pillow to watch him stumble to the door and leave your room. You inhale sharply and hold it for a minute. You crawl out of bed and wipe your back off with his shirt, throwing it over by the door. You take a minute to steady yourself before you grab your phone and use it to look at your bed. There’s blood on the sheets and you can feel the bruises on your thighs sting you as you realize the worst thing that could’ve happened… happened. You pull your knees up to your face and cry. You feel so disgusted with yourself, you just want to die. You sit there and cry until your phone beeps at you, pulling you out of your daze.

You scoot over to the table where it’s sitting and click the lock button and you see the notification on your phone. You sigh. _Of fucking course._

 

**_“Happy birthday, Dave Strider!”_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaand, I made it Davekat because of course I did.
> 
> I actually want to do something with plot in this.


	4. Chapter 4

You jolt awake, sprawled out on the floor after having a nightmare about drowning. It really sucked and you couldn’t feel your toes, but you could feel the water entering your lungs and burning like lava on the way out when you would dip your head above the surface. After coughing to make sure there isn’t any water actually in your lungs, you turn your phone’s alarm off. It’s 6:30 am and that shower is calling your name after last night’s… grossness.

“It’s my goddamn birthday, and I’m going to do some shit today.” you cheer yourself on. It’s not everyday you turn 16 after all, and 16 means you’re finally old enough to qualify for your surgery. With a happier thought in mind, you grab a pair of jeans and a long sleeve shirt and head for the bathroom.

You catch sight of your Bro sprawled out on the futon snoring like it is going out of style. He at least cleaned up after himself last night, because the big pile of cans and bottles are in a plastic shopping bag in his computer chair instead of on the floor. You tiptoe into the bathroom and turn the shower on. You remember to rip your sheets off the bed and bag them up in your closet. After making that mental note, you step into the warm water and sigh.

 

Sweet, sweet relief. Nothing like the icy cold salty water from your dreams. You’re probably going to ask Karkat to ditch with you today so you can hang out with him at the arcade. The owner, Ben, is a cool dude and hates your Bro, so he’s not gonna narc on you. “It’s not a date or anything,” you tell yourself after your cheeks warm up at the thought. You wash your hair and remind yourself to double check for visible marks and cover them up with the tube of make-up you pocketed at Walmart. It was the good shit too, so even if you get all gross during gym, it’s not gonna come off.

You inhale the warm air and smile, you’re not going to let anything fuck today up. Your other brother, Dirk’s ex (or are they dating? You can’t keep up.) Jake, said he’d give you some weed for a birthday present and you’re seriously looking forward to that. Karkat doesn’t smoke as far as you know though, so you’ll be solo in that department.

After you’re done, you step out of the shower and pull on your binder and shirt. You might as well go the full way and you make your hair look nice today too. You tell yourself a million times in the mirror that you are not going to let that asshole on the couch get you down and ruin your day. You pull your skinny jeans up and button them, they’re just tight enough to keep your legs warm and just loose enough that you don’t have to pack today. You let your eyes slide to the bite-mark peeking through the neck of your shirt, it’s already purple and gross looking. You rummage around in the drawer of the sink and get your makeup out to cover it up.

Hmm. A little here… a little there… some powder to make it blend in and… done. You won’t admit to watching about fifty beauty videos to make it look so seamless to anyone, much less to yourself.

You look at yourself in the mirror again. The hormone treatments are really doing wonders for your facial hair, although you hate how itchy it gets when it’s hot out. It’s just a little bit on your chin and the sideburns, but it just looks so… right.

You slide your sunglasses back onto your face and breathe. You’re Dave Strider. It’s December 3rd, 2011 and you’re going to be out of this house in a year’s time. Maybe less. Things can only get better from here… right?

“Right,” you tell your reflection and head back out the door to clean up your room. Your legs and back feel a lot better after a hot shower so walking to school isn’t gonna suck so much today. Besides, it’s still a little early so you can catch up with Karkat on your way there. His house isn’t too far from here, anyway. You check your phone again to see how much time you have to screw around in your room before you head out. 7:01 am.

You hit decide to hit up Jade before you leave, even though it’s probably the middle of the night for her right now.

 

 

turntechGodhead [TG] began pestering gardenGnostic [GG] 

[gardenGnostic is an idle chum!] 

TG: heyo just wanted to hit you up and let you know im not dead or anything lol  
TG: also morning  
TG: or i guess night  
TG: its like midnight for you right now or whatever  
TG: hmu when youre awake and we can look at dog memes or something  
TG: not during school of course because id probably be in the deepest of deep shits  
TG: anyway ttyl  
TG: later

turntechGodhead [TG] has ceased pestering gardenGnostic [GG]

 

 

Friendly guy? Dave Strider? Haha, hell yeah man.

You can hear Bro groaning, he’s probably got a crazy ass headache from all that shit he drank last night, thus surprising absolutely no one. You walk back into your room and rip the sheets off the bed, stuffing them into your pillow case and toss it into your closet. Burning them is another problem for a future you. You grab your skateboard and sling your backpack over your shoulder.

“School. Later.” you say to Bro.

“Hmmm wha-? Oh, later.” he says, throwing his hat on the ground from where it was haphazardly clinging to the back of his head.

You grab your shitty earphones out of your bag, put them in, and open up your music app. You play [a song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Itt1nn9aWz0) from a mix that you and Rose collaborated together on, so it’s got a nice vocalist and decent beats.

You’re about halfway into the song when you roll up to Karkat’s house, you’re not a stalker, you just walked with him a few weeks ago and mentioned that you could walk to school together sometimes if he was cool with that. Totally not weird, he was cool with that. You pull an earphone out and watch him.

“Oh, hey.” he says as he turns around and notices you standing there, “You watching me?”

“Just a coincidence man, I’m just good with time. Me and Time are old friends, practically ex lovers who still get together sometimes. You ever met Time? He’s DTF, if you feel me.” you put your hands up defensively and hold your skateboard in place with your foot.

“You always ramble like that? Jesus, you must really love the sound of your voice.” he smiles as he walks up to you.

“What can I say, I’d fuck me.” you laugh and playfully shove his side.

“You’re insufferable!” he’s trying hard not to laugh so he’s biting his lip, “Did you remember to study for the test in Bio today?” You pick up your board and start the 4 block walk to school.

“I’ve never studied a day in my life.” you stare right at him, “Don’t plan to. You just gotta remember what the teacher said, and if you don’t remember, you just fucking wing it.”

“Okay Mr. D in Algebra, but I don’t want to hear you crying to me when you fail your test.” he chides you, waggling his finger in your face.

“Actually, dude, I was gonna ask you if you wanted to ditch with me today? It’s um, it’s my birthday today so I was gonna take you to the arcade, uh, if you want.” you pull your other earphone out and let it dangle around your neck.

“My dad is gonna kill me if he finds out, but it wouldn’t be the American Dream if you didn’t miss shit sometimes... We’ll head out after Biology because I really need to pass this test.” he thinks for a moment, “Give me your phone so I can save my number in it. I’ll text you after I grab my things from my locker.”

“If you wanted my number, you could’ve just asked.” you smile a bit and pass your phone to him.

He focuses on typing in your phone for a second and passes it back to you.

“Yeah? That’s the nickname you’re picking for yourself?” you raise an eyebrow at him.

“It’s what you called me after I told you my name, loser.” he jokes.

“Oh my god, Karkat, your number has 420 and 69 in it. Aww yes, you lucky fucker.” you sling your arm around his shoulder, “Crabby, you’ve been blessed with a gift, you better take care of it like a first-born son.”

“Remind me again why I’m friends with you?” he shakes your arm off his shoulder, his cheeks darkening slightly.

“Because I’m… awesome?” you test.

“That will do.” he nods sagely.

“Ahaha, you’re such a dork,” you’re finally in front of the school, “Oh hey, I have to go get something from Jake from my English class, meet me at the usual spot?”

“Alright, I will see you there,” he waves to you and you spin around and head to the usual spot where Jake and his buddies hang out behind the school. You hang out here with them sometimes.

Though you know they’re hanging out with him mostly because Jake’s grandpa has a legal weed plot in his greenhouse for medicinal. Old dude doesn’t seem to notice when Jake snags a few to impress his friends. Either that, or he knows Jake doesn’t smoke it.

 

“Hello, Dave!” he yells to you when he sees you, “It’s been a right bit since I’ve seen you, old boy! How’ve you been faring?”

“S’cool, I can’t complain too much.” you shrug with a smile, “You remembered my birthday didn’t you?”

“How could I forget about you? Finally 16, things will only be on the up and up from here.” he smiles brightly, and slaps his hand against yours and you take the baggie from his hand.

“You talk to Dirk lately?” you say and his smile dies down a bit.

“Ah he’s… well he’s being Dirk. You probably know how that is, he’s your kin after all.” he says. You pocket the baggie while no one is watching you.

“Half-brother, but yeah, I feel you dude.” you pat his shoulder, “Cheer up man, a smile looks better on you. Dirk will come around, he’s just not sure how to deal with our dad’s death.”

“I personally didn’t give a shit about that asshole, but I know Dirk cared so...” you trail off, your dad left you with Bro after he ran off to California to make it big as a screenplay writer and he never called you, so he obviously made it clear he didn’t give a shit. Dirk got to stay with his biological mom and you got Bro because of fucking course you did.

“Well, all this doom and gloom is no good, like you said, a smile is better. Have a jolly birthday, Dave.” he smiles back at you.

“We’ll hang the next time I go over to Dirk’s place, later Jake” you wave goodbye to him and walk in through the back entrance of the school and head down to your locker to stow your things.

You shove your earphones back into your ears and replay that playlist, Rose may be mysterious as all hell, but damn if she don’t have great taste in music. You decide to leave your Biology book in your locker, since you’ve got it second period and you’re not going to need it after that.

You’re notice a headache on the back of your head, probably from Bro pulling on your hair like it was a rope and he was a mountain climber. You grab a few pain pills from your stash in the back of your locker and pop a few in your mouth. They’re not anything hardcore, just some ibuprofen for when your eyes hurt too much.

You stand up and look down the hallway as your phone fades into the [next song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEKuE4U9zBk), one that you picked, and you ignored Rose when she called you out for why you picked it. You see Karkat walking around the corner and heading down toward you.

“Jesus, is this a romcom or some shit?” you mumble to yourself. You think Karkat would find that either funny or romantic, as he loves rom-coms with a burning passion.

“Hey Dave, I uh, hope you don’t mind but I actually got you something for your birthday, I needed to grab it out of my locker.” he looks down at the gift-wrapped box and then back to you.

“Really? I… thank you.” you take the package he gives you and you stare at it for a moment. It’s got a nice red wrapping on it and something is written on a card in Spanish with your name underneath it.

“Should I open the gift or the card first?” you feel a genuine smile on your cheeks and you feel your ears warm a little.

“Uh, actually, you should open the card in.. later! Not here, actually. Just later when I’m not around.” he twists his finger around a loose curl of hair and pushes the gift toward you.

“Well open the gift already!” he puffs up a little, how adorable.

“Alright alright…” you chuckle and tear the paper off and slide out the gift. It’s a pair of headphones that you talked about getting for yourself for Christmas if you had the money. You didn’t know Karkat was paying attention to your blabbering, much less had the amount of money for these.

“Karkat I don’t know what to say...” you look at him.

“Silly, that’s not all, look underneath.” he reaches into the box and pulls up the headphone box to show an old Polaroid camera with instant-developing film, “It was my dad’s but he doesn’t use it anymore, so I fixed it up and bought you some new film.”

You suddenly feel overwhelmed.

“You didn’t have to do this for me,” you say steadily.

“Of course I did! What are friends for?” he pokes you in the arm, “You deserve nice things.”

You really want to hug him, but your arms are too full of gifts to do that right now.

“I’ll murder you with thank you’s later, my arms are too full.” you smile brightly at him and he smiles back at you.

“What about this card?” you raise an eyebrow and hold it up between your fingers.

“Later! When we are at the Arcade, I’ll read it to you.” he waves you off.

“Oh shit, what time is it?” you say as the first bell rings.

“Well I’ll see you in class, bye.” he runs off. What’s got him so worked up?

You pop open the card after stowing your gifts in your backpack and… oh. It’s.. it’s not in English. Does he want you to translate it? You did ask him to teach you some words in Spanish but.. You didn’t think that he’d write two whole paragraphs in Spanish with the only English word being “Dave”

“Shit, I’m gonna be late and get in trouble.” you close your locker and run off to class. Hopefully you can keep your chill around Karkat today.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Get it? Get it? Jake English... from English class *ba dum TISS*
> 
> Shit's about to get romantic, or at the very least, there's a Davekat date coming up.
> 
> Also there's clickable song links in here!!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for homophobic slur (f* slur)
> 
> EDIT 3/8/2018: Made a very very minor change to some wording.

You slide into the locker room and pop open your gym locker. Hey, if anything, gym is easy as all hell because you can rup laps around the pathetic kids who can’t do half the shit that you can. After grabbing your running shoes, you put on your long sleeved gym shirt because no way in hell are you dealing with people asking about your bruises. You’re the first one here, so you’ve got the changing room all to yourself. The teachers are cool about keeping everyone in check around you, because teenagers are dicks.

After changing into your gym uniform, you check to see if anyone messaged you. Nothing yet. So far so good. Jade probably won’t say anything to Rose without your permission and nobody wants to deal with Rose when she’s pissed off. Even you are afraid of incurring her wrath. You tie up your shoes just as the other kids start to pour in. Some kid who you don’t know stares at you for a second. You shoot him a look that’s somewhere between ‘say anything to me and I’ll rip your head off’ and ‘go fuck yourself’ and he sneers back at you. He opens his mouth and starts to say something but quickly bites his tongue when Dirk comes around the corner.

“Morning, bro.” he holds his fist out. You don’t wanna leave a bro hanging, so you bump it back. He obviously reads the room, ever the watchful of people fucking with you, and looks at the kid staring at you.

“What’s wrong? You got a crush on him or something?” Dirk says cooly, “Get the fuck lost.”

“Fuck you and your freak ass brother.” he spits at you before stalking off to the other side of the locker room.

“How’ve you been?” you lean back on the bench and look at him as he pulls his shirt over his head.

“I feel like shit if I’m honest, but I’m here, so there’s that. Oh, happy birthday, by the way.” he mumbles.

“Thanks. And I don’t mean to drop a bomb on you, Dirk, but you gotta talk to Jake sooner or later.” you poke at his side. He whips his head around to stare at you. His shades are hanging on his locker, so you can see the guilty look on his face.

“God, I know. I already feel like shit for getting pissed at him for something that wasn’t his fault. Who’s side are you on, anyway?” he pauses, “I suck at saying sorry, you know that.”

“Just tell him! You don’t gotta’ beat around the bush with him. He’s gonna forgive you, if that’s what you’re worried about.” you assure him.

“I will, man. I should ask how you’re doing instead…” he leans his head in closer to you and whispers, “Bro treating you okay? You look rough, man.”

Your mind flies back to last night and you’re still too scared to tell anyone. You only talked to Jade about it because she **SAW** and you can’t smooth-talk your way out of that.

“I had a bad night. You know how Bro is.” you say and his face falls into a frown. He knows about the forced fighting and the whole ‘Bro can’t be bothered to feed or clothe his kid’ thing but he doesn’t know about everything else.

“Yeah, I do. Which is why I’m worried about you.” he pats your head. Everyone and their sister’s brother’s cousin’s boyfriend knows you two are related, so you’re not worried about anyone saying mean shit to you. Even if they did, so what? You’d kick their ass in a second.

“Nothing I can’t handle, Dirk. I would like it if you would come by more, though. He’s considerably less of a giant fuckface when you’re around to judge his crazy ass. At least he has some fucking shame left in his soulless body.” you whisper.

The kids have started leaving the locker room and you take that as your cue to leave. You stand up to do so and Dirk catches you by the elbow.

“Man, what?” you look at him over your glasses.

“I’m… I’m sorry about everything, Dave. If my mom wasn’t such a fucking bitch you could come live with me. She preaches her love of LGBT people but she sure as shit doesn’t put her so-called ‘acceptance’ into actual fucking practice.” he slides his sunglasses back on, “Is tonight okay?”

You nod and he lets you go, so you head out to the gym. Some people look up at you, but everyone else seems to ignore you or just doesn’t give a fuck. You see Rose wave at you and you walk over to her, sitting next to her on the ground.

She’s your best friend in the whole world and she genuinely cares about you, as much as she tries to hide it behind her signature Lalonde snark. She’s shorter than you by nearly half a foot, curvy, and Japanese. She’s a die-hard lesbian though and makes damn sure everyone knows it.

“Hi Dave.” she says with a smile, “Happy birthday.”

“Happy fucking birthday to me.” you lean back on your elbows and kick your feet out from under you.

“Cheery as always, I see. Long night I presume?” she smirks a bit and tucks her hair behind her ear.

“You know me. Full of that genuine 100% real beef Strider Cheer. Trademark pending.” you shoot her a finger-gun.

“Ah yes, avoid and evade. My personal favorite tactic for making sure nobody knows I was up all night looking stressed out of my gourd.” Rose winks at you, “And the finger-guns are a nice touch.”

“Stop seeing right through me like I’m made of glass. It’s creepy as hell.” you laugh a little.

“Ever the clarity with you, Dave. Creepy just happens to be something that comes naturally to me like breathing or sleeping.” she pokes her tongue out at you and you mirror it back to her. She’s known you longer than anyone else and she knows literally everything about you. Or, at least, she used to. You internally repress that thought. You’ve been known to mumble your thoughts aloud and this wouldn’t be a good time to do that.

“So, how’s… things?” you want to step on yourself for how unsure that sounded.

“Well, you know how it is with things. They are that they are. But if you’re asking about me in general, I’m just peachy.” she smiles a bit, “You been talking to Karkat?”

Your face drops a bit, “How’d you know that?”

“Well a little birdy, by which I mean Kanaya, told me that she’d seen the two of you walking together to school today. I must say, you have good taste in men.” she side-eyes you at that.

“Ah, well, it’s...” you stammer, thank GOD the teacher just walked in. At least you can avoid this for now. You sit up a bit straighter and Rose looks at you with curiosity on her face but doesn’t press it further while the teacher is there.

You zone out mostly on what she’s saying. Something something, endurance, something something, how many laps you can do in thirty minutes.

You’ve been doing the same shit in class all week, so you don’t even know why she bothers to explain it. She unlocks the doors to the track area and lets everyone outside. You let Rose walk ahead of you and you hang back because you’d rather do anything than run alongside her where she can pick your brain about Karkat. You’re not avoiding this, you’re really not. Just putting it off for now.

“Oh, Strider, Happy birthday.” the teacher, you can never remember her name, smiles at you. She annoyingly calls everyone by their last name.

“It’s not my birthday though!” Dirk calls from across the gym and you hear his friends chuckle. Asshole.

“She obviously means the better Strider, nerd.” you smile with a snark you could’ve only gotten from hanging out with Rose. You look over at him as he flips you off.

You’re back outside again and you can see the kids from Jake’s mom’s class out here. She’s a hippy-dippy Creative Writing teacher and just loves to take her class outside when the weather’s not blazing hot. She sees you looking and waves at you so you wave back to her. See? You’re not an asshole.

You finally get over to the actual track and your class loiters around the line waiting for your teacher to finish gossiping or whatever teachers do when they’re not teaching. Rose spots you and mouths something like ‘You’re gonna have to tell me sooner or later’ and well, joke’s on her, because she was so busy reading you that you didn’t get a chance to tell her you’re leaving after your next class.

After your teacher gets outside, you finally take off running. You’re going to kick everyone’s ass anyway, nobody but Dirk is as fast as you and he’s not in your class this semester. You’re at about seven laps when the teacher says it’s time to go back inside to tally out your laps. Rose never made it up to you and that’s just dandy with you, but she does catch you at the door.

“He’s good for you, I say go for it.” she says as she fans off her face. You’re standing next to her so you can’t just say nothing.

“Thanks.” you say, “Easier said than done, but thanks.”

“Have fun at the arcade, love.” she blows a kiss at you and you swat it away.

“Karkat is damn gossip. I should kick his ass for that.” you say as you part ways for your respective locker rooms. You’re not alone in the room this time but nobody is paying you much mind. Dirk is still out with his class but he’ll be in here soon.

You pull your gym shirt off, quickly grabbing your regular shirt and getting ready to pull it over your head. You’re about to mentally kick yourself for that thought because that stupid kid from earlier rounds the corner with a friend in tow.

“What the fuck do you want?” you say, your arms going lax with the shirt still in your arms.

“I want you to get the fuck back where you belong, you crossdressing fag.” he spits the words at you and, yeah, that hurt a bit, but you know better than to show any emotion to these people. You turn your head away from him and ignore him. This apparently pissed him off and his friend puts his arm out to grab at your binder. He nearly gets there before you feel hands on your waist and you gasp. Your brain is throwing up signals that Bro is near you but the other hand reaches out and grabs the kids head and slams it into a locker.

“You piece of shit, what did I JUST tell you?” It’s Dirk. He swings his body in front of you and you just stand there. You don’t see the other kid but you can hear footsteps running toward you. It sounds like an older guy so it’s probably the teacher coming over to break it up.

Dirk is still standing in front of you and his eyes flick behind you. You turn your head to see what he was looking at. The kid from before wrenches your arm in his hands. Not fucking smart. You jerk your elbow back at him and it smashes into his nose, sending him stumbling backwards. Dirk’s fist connects with the kids face and you finally remember you’re standing there shirtless and, god, Dave, have some dignity. You pull your shirt on and step back.

The teacher finally gets there after what feels like years and sees the two idiots standing around staring at you while Dirk stands by you protectively. Everyone is looking over at you because, holy shit, your brother just punched a kid in the face for you.

“What’s going on?” the teacher, you recognize him, he’s the baseball coach, looks between the four of you.

“They just assaulted my brother, I had every right to attack them.” Dirk says, pushing you back.

A few boys are whispering to each other and a few of them look damn afraid. Everyone who knows Dirk is either scared shitless of him or is his best friend. He’s tall, made of muscles, and is terrifying when he’s angry. He’s never gotten angry at you or ever taken out his anger on you like Bro has. He’s always just protected you.

“Yeah, they came around and started ganging up on Dave, don’t blame Dirk for helping!” someone Dirk’s age pipes up.

Your brother softens visibly and steps forward, letting you get out from behind him. The teacher pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs.

“DiStri, I feel you, but you can’t go punching people.” he says. Ew, did he call Dirk ‘DiStri’? You’re totally going to pick on him for that.

“Yeah, well, Mr. York, it’s not like you were here to do anything.” Dirk hisses and the coach has the decency to look ashamed.

“It’s fine, I’m fine. Dirk was just helping me get away from these creeps.” you put a hand on Dirk’s shoulder and you feel him relax.

“You and you, in my office.” Mr. York points at the kids, “Dirk, Dave, please get out of my locker room before I change my mind.” You have nothing to add to that so you quickly change back into your regular clothes and bolt from the locker room.

The hallway is empty and it’ll be another ten minutes until everyone else is out here besides Dirk, so you let yourself have a moment. You remember to finally breathe so you let it out and take a deep breath. You hear the locker room door open and shut quickly. Dirk is by you on the floor. Oh hey, you’re on the floor now, that’s a thing.

“Dave, hey, you okay?” he says softly and flutters around you like a bird.

“Yeah, I’m-I’m fine.” you say. You are not fine. He knows this and rummages through his backpack until he finds a bottle of water and passes it to you. You take a long drink from it and it makes you feel a little better.

“You good?” he pulls your shades up over your head and you notice he isn’t wearing his at the moment. They’re hanging on the neck of his shirt. Ah, he’s making sure you’re not going to lie.

“I’ve been worse.” it’s not a lie. “Thanks.”

“Hmm. I don’t think you’re lying but…” he’s a good people reader, unfortunately. This is why you’ve been avoiding him.

“It’s okay man. I’m okay. They didn’t get to touch me.” you almost want to laugh at the irony here, because sure, those two didn’t, but someone else did.

“Dave…” he locks eyes with you, “Are… are you okay today? You seem more jumpy than usual.”

“Boy troubles.” you say as you stand, which is also not technically a lie.

“Were you fighting with Bro yesterday? I saw the bruises on your back when I grabbed you.” and okay, he’s observant, and this you can actually tell him without feeling like Bro is going to murder you or worse.

“Yeah, and it sucked, and then he got shitfaced after. Super glad Dad decided to leave me with him.” you try not to sound angry about that last part, but hey, you sure as fuck are.

“He left you with Bro because my mom is a horrible parent for you.” he reasons.

“And what, Bro is better?” you clench your teeth and try not to yell about that. What the fuck is wrong with your family?

“It’s better than being hurt because of who you are.” he looks really sad. You hate airing this shit to him because you know he feels bad, but you feel like shit too. Neither of you had a say in this. You grab your glasses and slide them back over your eyes. Much better.

“If something were to happen to you, I’d murder Bro for hurting you, but I’d understand if you couldn’t or didn’t want to tell me. I won’t ask if you don’t come to me first,” he promises. You almost want to hold him to that.

You nod and the bell rings. Other students are leaving the locker rooms, so you put a little space between yourself and him.

“Thanks for sticking up for me, Dirk.” you actually are telling the truth here.

“It’s my job.” he shrugs and rubs your shoulder before walking off with a wave.

Rose sees you standing there and jogs up to talk to you, pulling you off to the side. She looks angry as hell.

“Who the fuck touched you?” her lips curl and, damn, she’s looking around for the guys.

“You gonna kill ‘em?” you joke, but she looks serious as hell.

“It’s the plan. Maybe break a leg or two.” she says.

“It’s okay, Rose, Dirk already punched the one kid and the other is probably in deep shit with him. How did you find out?” you ask, even though you know the answer.

“Dirk told Roxy and Roxy told me. If I so much as see those two…” her eyes lock on someone and, oh shit, she’s really fucking pissed.

“I’ve got it, Rose, take Dave and go on to class.” the coach from earlier says, escorting the two scumbags off in the direction the principal's office.

“Motherfuckers.” Rose spits the words out like they’re poison, “Dave, you should… you should say something to--”

“Hey, Rose, I love you and all, but I really would rather talk about anything else right now if you don’t mind.” you interrupt her.

“Right-- no, you’re right, forgive me.” she hooks her arm around yours, “To Biology then?”

“To Biology.” you say with a laugh. What a fucking birthday this is turning out to be.

* * *

 

You and Rose are just about to your science class when you remember something you wanted to ask her.

“Oh Rose, you can read Spanish right?” you dig the card out of your pocket where it was folded up.

“My, my, what’s this?” she says, taking it from your hand and eying it.

“Karkat gave it to me, I can’t fucking read it though. He’s testing me I think.” you muse.

“Or, Dave, perhaps he has trouble writing in English and would rather read it to you elsewhere?” aaaand now you feel stupid.

“Wow, I feel stupid.” you say, stupidly. The circle of stupidity is complete.

“Well I’m all for having a laugh at your expense because you’re very adorable when you’re angry, but I’ll take a look and spare you this once.” she winks at you and now you kinda want to murder her, but, nah.

You watch her as she reads it over quickly, leaned against the wall across the way from your classroom.

“I don’t think I should read this.” she closes it and hands it back to you. Weird.

“Why not?” you tilt your head.

“It’s... hmmm. I think you have not told me something I’ve read and now I feel bad for knowing about it, so I’m going to let this be a thing between the two of you.” She fiddles with her hair and looks away. Oh shit.

“Wait. Rose, what did you read?” you ask.

“Dave, I mean, I already had a feeling but I figured you would come to me about it eventually.” she answers, cryptic as ever, “About you know, oh how should I put this? Your um, scars.”

Oh. Right. You forgot Karkat didn’t know about… that. Or at least, he doesn’t yet.

“Actually, why don’t we talk about this tomorrow? I want you to have a good day today.” she brushes your hair out of your face.

“Rose I don’t-” the bell rings, because of course it does.

“Tomorrow, Dave. Please?” she squeezes your arm and pulls you in for a hug, nuzzling herself into your neck.

“Okay, tomorrow.” you say as she walks down the hall.

Well damn if that ain’t a thing that just happened, because it sure just fucking happened. And it’s never going to stop happening.

You walk into class and slide into your desk, you can see Karkat already talking to Rose’s girlfriend Kanaya very quickly in Spanish. It doesn’t sound like an argument, it seems like Kanaya is doing almost all the talking though. You’re not going to lie, Kanaya is damn beautiful. She’s elegant, tall, a total lesbian, and dark skinned like Karkat. You can’t pinpoint her accent, but Rose says she was raised in Britain and now that you think about it, you can hear that in her voice. She’s a bit snarky, kind, into fashion, and obviously perfect for Rose. If soulmates were a thing, you’re sure Kanaya and Rose were made for each other. You’re not staring at her, you’re not.

Karkat looks over at you and laughs, “You think Kanaya is elegant?” God fucking dammit Strider. Kanaya laughs, holding up a perfectly manicured hand to cover her lips.

“I don’t really know about snarky, but I agree on the tall point.” she says with her wavering voice. She always sounds like she’s just on the edge of sarcasm, but she’s never been sarcastic with you, you think at least.

“Yeah well don’t make a habit out of the snarky thing,” you blush.

She whispers something to Karkat in Spanish again and he makes a noise like she just strangled him and she laughs again.

“ _¡Cállate!_ ” he whispers, and you know that one. She seems to be poking fun at him. She pauses for a moment and leans over to you.

“Need something?” you ask her.

“Happy birthday, Dave.” she whispers and smiles at you through perfect black lipstick.

You mumble a ‘thanks’ and try not to implode. O-fucking-kay, Dave, it’s just Kanaya and she’s not interested in dudes.

The teacher walks in and doesn’t say much, just a ‘Hello’ and passes out the tests.

It’s not that hard, you’ve been doing animal anatomy and that stuff is easy enough to remember. You think about the skeletons you have posed on the shelves in your room at Bro’s apartment, okay well maybe the animal thing is more of an interest than a thing you just know about.

You manage to finish it first but you don’t want to look like a nerd for this shit so you fuck around with your pencil until a few people have handed theirs in.

Anxiety: 1. Dave: 0.

You sit back down at your desk and pull your phone out. You consider messaging Rose to talk about what she read, but she doesn’t want to ruin your day. That’s fair, you suppose. You pop open Pesterchum to see you’ve got pestered by Jade while you were in gym.

gardenGnostic [GG] began pestering turntechGodhead [TG]

[turntechGodhead is an idle chum!]

GG: good morning dave!  
GG: oh dog memes you say!! :O  
GG: i may have to take you up on that. :D  
GG: oh i suppose you’re in school right now  
GG: uh oh, i hope i did not just get you in trouble  
GG: i’m going to say no since you’re idle and not offline.  
GG: oh dave, i have a good meme right here for you.

[gardenGnostic attached the file dogmeme57.png]

GG: i hope that’s okay!! :)  
GG: have a good day at school dave  
GG: and happy birthday!! :D

gardenGnostic [GG] has ceased pestering turntechGodhead [TG]

You tap on the attached file, it’s a picture of a black dog with the image sharpened a lot and the eyes glowing bright red and it says ‘HAPPY BIRTH’ in big letters that don’t fit in the picture. You’re laughing quietly to yourself when you notice Karkat getting up and he looks at you and back at your phone.

“ _Lamento mi elección en los hombres_ …” he mutters to Kanaya and she laughs softly.

Now that everyone has handed their test in, the teacher tell the class that they can talk until the bell rings.

“ _¿Estás bien, Karkat?_ ” Kanaya says to him, and you’re not going to lie that this shit is fascinating to listen to. You know Dirk can speak and read Japanese and so can Bro, but you were never really good at it so you can’t read it well.

“ _Si, estoy bién_ ” he answers and scratches his face.

“ _Karkat por favor. Dile a Dave que lo amas pronto. Él obviamente te ama._ ” Kanaya says with a playful shove.

“I’m gonna be honest and say I have no idea what you’re saying, but hearing my name in there makes me nervous.” you lean on your arm and stare at them as Kanaya gives Karkat a pitiful look.

“It’s nothing Dave, oh look it’s almost time for you to talk to Karkat while I go over here and speak with my friends from Design. _Adiós._ ” she walks off without looking back at Karkat.

“ _¡Kanaya, eres una traidora!_ ” he grimaces at her and looks over at you, “Oh hello Dave, you don’t speak Spanish suddenly do you?”

“Nope, sorry. Oh hey, I love the card but…” you pull it out of your pocket and show it to him, “I can’t read it.”

“I know you can’t, but I’m not that good at writing in English so I thought I’d read it back to you.” he says it like it was supposed to be obvious, and looking back you feel dumb again for thinking it was some kind of puzzle.

“Wait, then why did you make the card if you were just going to read it to me?” you shift the weight off of your right arm to your left.

“Well, it’s a tradition I thought? I didn’t think you would be so upset about it. I can take it back if you don’t want it?” he reaches for the card.

“Uh actually I love the card and uh yeah, anyway I’m keeping the card.” you stow it under your phone back in your pocket.

Karkat looks at you and flicks his eyes to your neck and then back to you. What?

“Dave are you okay?” he touches his neck while he says it.

“I’m fine, why?” you wonder why he is touching his neck.

“Dave, Are. You. Okay?” he keeps tapping his neck. What is he…

Your stomach drops. Oh good, that’s a thing isn’t it. You peek down at it and luckily it’s just the bruised part showing, not the actual damn teeth marks. But when did it come off? Right. Fuck, Rose gave you that big hug in the hallway.

“Yes, I’m okay. I just bumped myself when I was screwing around the other day.” you know this won’t draw any attention to yourself that you don’t want. And Karkat will probably think this is from Bro being the world’s shittiest guardian and not a fucking… you know.

“Sorry to hear about that.” he says, looking genuinely hurt to see you hurt. You hate seeing him with that sad look on his face.

“So, Karkat, can you tell me something in Spanish? It’s so weird hearing you speak it.” you change the subject.

He knows what you’re doing, but he plays along with a laugh, “Do I ask you to say English things because you can speak English?”

“I can do Japanese if you like. あなたは私が今まで見た中で最も美しい人です.” you rattle off and he looks surprised.

You see Kanaya look over at you from the corner of her eye and she gives you a wide smile. Oh fuck, you didn’t count on her knowing any of that. You hope Karkat doesn’t-

“What does that mean?” he looks at Kanaya and she sneers at you. Okay, you take back everything you said about her being kind, now you know why Rose loves her. She’s pure, beautiful lesbian evil. You give her a pleading look and she thinks for a moment.

“Unfortunately I didn’t catch all of it, something about ‘all these stairs’ perhaps?” she says and you want to cry and hug her and kiss her-actually maybe not that bit but she could’ve ratted you out and she didn’t.

“Damn memes.” Karkat says with a shake of his head.

The bell finally gives you sweet mercy and… oh that’s right, you asked Karkat on a date. Wait, no, it’s not a date!! It’s just two guys being dudes and hanging out together. Alone in an arcade while the owner plays games in the back. Oh fuck, oh fuck. You didn’t think this through. Shit, how much money do you have? That’s enough for lunch, right? You can take your da-not date. Your. FRIEND. Out to lunch.

Guys being dudes.

You hate yourself sometimes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translation notes:
> 
> "¡Cállate!" = Shut up!
> 
> "Lamento mi elección en los hombres…" = I regret my choice in men
> 
> "¿Estás bien, Karkat?" = Are you okay, Karkat?
> 
> "Si, estoy bién" = Yeah, I'm okay.
> 
> "Karkat por favor. Dile a Dave que lo amas pronto. Él obviamente te ama." = Karkat please. Tell Dave that you love him soon. He obviously loves you.
> 
> "¡Kanaya, eres una traidora!" = Kanaya, you're a traitor!!
> 
> "あなたは私が今まで見た中で最も美しい人です" = You are the most beautiful person I've ever seen.
> 
> Casual flirting in other languages?? Who's that?? I don't know 'em. ;)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You've gotten this far, enjoy a nice afternoon outing with Karkat and Dave. :D

Karkat follows you down to your locker and just stands there, watching you put your things into your backpack and zip it back up.

“Hurry up! I don’t want to get caught.” he’s looking around, as if someone is going to grab him and shove him in detention for being near a locker.

“It’s fine, Crabby. My locker is right next to the back exit and they don’t do hall monitors down here. I’ve skipped more than just this once and I’ve been going here longer than you.” you think it’s kinda cute how nervous and twitchy he is though, but you don’t want him to panic, so you do hurry up.

“Alright, alright, we’re going. You’re making  _ me _ nervous.” you grab his sleeve and lead him to the back exit. Nobody is watching and there are no cameras here, so getting out is easy enough. 

“Where to?” he says once you’re behind the school.

“Follow me.” you cut through the underneath of the bridge by the school and walk down the path until you’re far enough away that any staff looking outside of the windows couldn’t possibly recognize you if you turned around.

“Arcade is this way, give me your hand.” you’re already up the side up the ravine and you hold your hand out to help him up.

“This better be worth it. Damn glad… I didn’t go to gym class.” he huffs as you pull him up toward you. He crashes into you and you mutter a ‘sorry’ and give him some room.

“Well I already did gym and you don’t hear me complaining.” you smirk.

“Yes. Well you’re also… uh-- nevermind.” he fiddles with his hair like he did this morning.

Aaaand now you made it awkward. Nice work, Dave. 

But…

It’s kinda nice just being out here on a colder day with Karkat. 

“Oh, I know.” Karkat claps his hands together, “I can read your card to you now.”

“Just a sec, it’s in here.” you reach into your pocket and hand it over to him.

“ _ ¿Ingles o español? _ ” he says. You know this one because you watched Dora the Explorer at least once in your life.

“Ingles, please,” you say. Wow, he smiled at that. How cute.

“Dave…” he begins, “I’m really glad to have met you, even if the circumstances weren’t preferable. You’ve been a good person to me and made me feel welcome when everyone else thought I was a weirdo. I hope one day you can be in a better situation and your Brother won’t be around anymore to beat you up, but even so, I’m glad you’re my friend and I treasure you. Karkat.”

“I could’ve written it in broken English, I bet you would’ve liked that.” he says and pokes you with his elbow.

“You know me too well. Either way, thank you for the gifts and just being nice to me. You’re awesome.” you throw your arm around him and give him a squeeze. He’s really nice to hug because his sweater is so thick and soft. He squeezes you back and your stomach is doing its best impression of a gold-metal pole vaulter.

“Ah, is this the place?” he says and points up to an obnoxious neon sign.

“Yep. Just opened too, so it’s gonna’ be empty.” you can hear the annoying sounds of ‘GameBRO!!!!’ inside, but it wouldn’t be a classic arcade if it didn’t have annoying music playing. 

“After you.” You hold the door open for him and he waves you off but steps in ahead of you.

“Dave! What’s up, my best customer?” Ben says holding his hand out for a high-five. You slap your hand to his and ow, yeah, that fucking hurt. “You want a wristband or coin-play today?” Coin-play is for when you’re just stopping by for a few games, wristband is for the long-haul. 

“Wristbands.” you answer. He grabs a green wristband from behind the register and hands it over to you.

“Who’s this?” he points at Karkat.

“This is my… friend… Karkat.” Smooth, Dave, real fucking smooth. You mentally slap yourself in the face and hell, might as well shoot yourself in the foot. Gore the whole damn corpse with how badly you fucked up that one.

“Any friend of Dave is a friend of me, here you go, dude.” he says in his stupid surfer-dude accent and hands Karkat a wristband too.

“Thanks-- Ben was it? You’re not gonna tell anyone you saw us here, are you?” Karkat says, ever paranoid.

“Benny’s cool, he hasn’t narc’d on me yet,” you put your elbow on the counter.

“As long as Dave keeps his weirdo brother Derick away from me, we’re always cool.” Ben says.

“Why don’t you like Bro?” he asks. Oh boy, here we go...

“Lemme’ count the reasons…” he pauses, “One, dude’s a paranoid mother fuck and never lets anyone in his apartment unless he personally screens them, which means you gotta’ give him all of your personal info. Two, he broadcasts his security footage live on one of those creepy people-watching websites, which sure as fuck can’t be healthy for my dude here. Three, Derick is a closet alcoholic. Four, the fucking puppets my man. The fucking puppets.”

“Oh.” Karkat says, like he’s not sure if he believes them or if he does believe them, but doesn’t understand.

“He’s… complicated...” you say. Sure, that’s a good word, let’s say that. You know Ben doesn’t watch the live-footage, he just heard about it through Bro himself and that pretty much made the decision that he doesn’t want to be around him.

“Alright, I’m gonna go play PS3 in the back. Holler or ding me if you need anything.” he slaps the bell on his desk for show and walks off.

“Wait, we don’t need to pay?” Karkat asks.

“Nah, I’ve got a membership. ‘Was worth every penny.” you shrug and walk in the direction of the tallest arcade cabinet.

“Oh, my friend back in Spain had this on his Sega. Street Fighter Turbo.” he perks up and you smile at him.

You waste a good chunk of time playing games with him. He gets arrogant when he wins and super angry when he loses, but he hasn’t stopped smiling since you got here. You even hit up the pinball machines and he kicks your butt each time, mostly because you can’t stop staring at him. 1:30 pm rolls around and your stomach starts begging you for food. 

“Hey, uh, do you… wanna come get lunch with me?” you say while he’s focused on beating you in Tetris. 

“I could eat, sure. What do you have in mind?” he asks.

“I think the only place that will let us in without caring if we’re students outside of school when we’re not supposed to be is McDonalds. Fuck. I lost.” you slap your hand on the start button when the ‘GAME OVER’ screen plays and Karkat inputs his name in the high score screen.

“Hah, alright.” he’s still got a big smile on his face.

“Hey, Benny, we’re heading out!” You slap the bell on the desk obnoxiously and Karkat rolls his eyes at you.

“Later, little dude! Tell Dirk I said thanks for the repair job when you see him.” he yells from the backroom.

You walk Karkat out and he practically hisses at the sun, “Dios mio! My fucking eyes!”

“That’s what happens when you spend three and a half hours in a dark arcade. You get used to it. Or you wear shades. I’d lend you mind but I actually do need these.” you tell him.

“Why? What’s wrong with your eyes?” he asks innocently.

“They’re crazy sensitive to light. Remember how you felt just a second ago? Now you feel fine but I’d probably die if I went out in the light after being in the dark like that. I got a doctors note and everything that lets me wear ‘em wherever and whenever I want.” you explain and he looks guilty. “Aw, man, I’m not saying you can’t complain about the light hurting your eyes, it hurt me too. I just live with that all the time so it’s no big deal to me if I’ve got these on.” you touch your shades for emphasis.

“I guess I never thought about why you wore them.” he says thoughtfully.

“Well, I’m a pretentious asshole, but I don’t think even I could get away with wearing these in school without getting into deep shit.” you shrug and start walking. 

It’s quiet again but it gives you an idea. Karkat is into romantic stuff, right?

“Hey, hold this for a sec?” you stop Karkat on the sidewalk and he holds your backpack for you so you can fish out your new earbuds. You unwrap them and plug them into your phone, picking a  [ song ](https://youtu.be/bnFDxHo9uHs) that reminded you of Karkat. It’s something from some band that Rose listens to, but this song was really nice, so you added it to your regular mix as well as Rose’s mix.

“Here, put this in. And thanks for holding this.” you exchange your right earbud for your backpack. He looks a little wary, but puts it in anyway.

You walk together and listen to the song, you look over at Karkat and he looks over at you. He takes a step closer toward you and you feel his fingertips graze yours. 

“ _ Oh shit, this  _ **_IS_ ** _ a date. _ ” you start to panic, but you push the feeling back. It’s cool, it was just an accident. He didn’t mean to do that… probably. Unless he did. He looks at the ground and back over at you, shit that’s so cute.

“Hey, hey, look at that we’re here.” you laugh and open the door.

“Great, I’ll get the food. What do you want?” he says, looking at the menu board. 

“Oh, you don’t have to pay if you don’t want to.” you rub the back of your neck.

“It’s your birthday. Consider it my treat.” he smiles softly at you.Holy shit, you’re in love.

Calm down, Dave. Tell him what you want and _ chill. _

“You can just get me a burger and some fries. And a drink too. Any size.” you exhale the breath you’ve been holding.

“Alright, go pick somewhere to sit. I’ll be over in a few minutes.” he touches your arm reassuringly.

Right, a seat. You pick a booth in the back corner and scan the room. You might as well people-watch while you wait. There’s a few of college kids sitting together and laughing, two girls sitting together and playing on their phones, and one weirdly blond guy sitting by himself in a booth. Wait, that last one was just you.

You check yourself out in the window reflection and you can see the smear of makeup that Rose rubbed off when she hugged you, it barely came off, but it did enough that it looks like you have a nasty bruise on your collarbone. You take a deep breath, Karkat is standing at the front waiting by the register, he sees you and waves. You wave back and pull your phone out.

turntechGodhead [TG] started pestering tentacleTherapist [TT]

TG: rose holy shit  
TG: i think this is a date  
TT: You’re very lucky I’m in lunch right now, then.  
TT: Need any tips?  
TG: idk he touched my hand with his and hes being really nice to me  
TT: ...Dave, did it ever occur to you that Karkat may be romantically interested in you?  
TT: If you asked him, I’m certain he will say yes.  
TT: Dave?  
TG: shit sorry you were saying  
TT: I’ll gloss over that for the moment.  
TT: Perhaps he was trying to make the first move, Dave.  
TG: why would he do that.  
TT: …  
TT: Wow, Kanaya is right. You really are this obtuse.  
TT: He is interested. Either you make a move or he will. It’s really up to you.  
TT: And please, promise me not to openly flirt with him in other languages aloud in class.  
TG: wow kanaya you narc you ratted me out  
TT: She says, and I’m directly quoting here “I Promised I Would Not Tell Karkat But I Made No Such Promise To Rose” end quote.  
TG: what if i mess up though  
TT: I think you’ll find that difficult to do, Dave, because even if you mess up, I can promise he will reciprocate your feelings.  
TT: Now stop pestering me and get back to Karkat.  
TG: ugh fine

turntechGodhead [TG] has ceased pestering tentacleTherapist [TT]

Okay, so he likes you. That’s a hell of a mystery that didn’t need solving but damn if it didn’t just get solved. He walks up to your table just as you stuff your phone in your pocket. 

“Hey, here’s the food, what drink do you want?” he sits the tray of food at the table and tilts his head at you inquisitively. 

“Sweet tea?” your voice breaks a little at the end. Fucking voice cracks. He bites his lip and walks off.

You take another deep breath. It’s fine, Rose said he likes you. What are you even panicking for? Now that you think about it, the light looks kinda nice from here, in an artificial way. You dig around in your bag until you find the Polaroid camera, lets see...a Polaroid SX-70. It looks like it was cleaned and touched up with paint in some places, but it’s a classic and nice camera. Okay, don’t get too excited over a camera, Dave. Point, focus, shoot.

You point the camera in Karkat’s direction. He’s chewing on the tip of his thumbnail and not paying you much attention. Focus, deep breath, no shaking… and… Oh shit, the shutter is really loud, but you got the shot. He turns his head toward you and looks a little annoyed and rolls his eyes. His middle finger flies up and you snap another shot of him.

“I’m going to kick your ass,” he growls at you with pseudo-anger.

“I’m terrified,  _ really _ …” you smile at him, but you put the camera down on the table. You pick up the photographs and look them over. The first one is really dreamy and sleepy looking. If you ignore the fact that you took it in a McDonald’s, it’s a nice shot. It’s going up on your wall as soon as possible. The other one is blurry, but you can still see Karkat’s face clearly. He has the look on his face of a kid when you tell them they have to take their baby bro to a party. Hahaha, that’s awesome. You think you’ll let Karkat have that one.

“Ugh, god, what a horrible picture,” he slides into the seat across from you and points at the blurry picture, “Here’s your drink, asshole. Maybe ask me next time?”

“I could but then everything feels posed and unnatural.” you shrug and take a drink. Mmm sweet tea.

“If anyone else had done that, I’d rip their damn head off. I’ll let it go this time because it’s your birthday,” he narrows his eyes at you and angrily bites a fry.

“Eat me.” You flip him off with a smile and dig in. Shit, the last time you ate was pizza last night… ugh, you swear to never get four-meat pizza again.

“What’s… with that face?” he asks between chewing on his sandwich.

“Nothin’,” you say, “Just thinking about how thankful I am that you bought me food today.”

“Well you don’t look like you’ve eaten since yesterday and I could hear your stomach growling from across the arcade.” he answers, “Can I ask about the bruise now?”

“Oh that’s…” you trail off. What do you even say? “ _ Yeah sorry my Bro bit me, hahaha funny isn’t it? _ ”

“I heard that you got into a fight this morning. What happened?” Oh, he thinks its from the locker room issue. Well.

“Just some dudes being assholes to me.” you didn’t really want to talk about this if you could have avoided it.

“You seem normal enough to me,” he asks. Maybe he doesn’t know that you’re trans? You’ve got a bomb to drop and that shit’s a-tickin’. 

“Karkat, what do you know about me? And I don’t mean my hobbies, I mean the big stuff.” he probably doesn’t get where this is going.

“Uh, you’re Dave Strider, today is your 16th birthday, you’re a male, you’re bisexual… So what?” he rattles off. Okay, but everyone knows all of that. So he really doesn’t know.

“Male huh? I’m glad I pass so easily now. Didn’t used to be that way,” you say thoughtfully. Yep, there it is. His eyes go a little wider.

“Wait, you’re… oh, you’re… what’s the word…” he thinks for a second, “Transgendered? So what? Lots of people are.”

You weren’t expecting him to take it so easily. But hey, he did, and that’s good fucking news to your ears.

“Yeah, well, that might be true, but not everyone is as nice as you are.” you sip your tea, “Some people can’t handle anything different and some of those people are damn violent.”

“Is that why your Brother…?” he trails off. He’s got the wrong idea of course.

“You’ve got the wrong idea, and it’s just Bro. Bro is just an asshole, he’s like that to everyone. He’s… well... he’s more accepting than most everyone else, so no, that’s not why he beats the shit out of me.” you scowl, “He’s just a fucking creep and a terrible guardian.”

“Sorry for assuming that’s why.” he apologizes.

“You’re fine, thanks for… not making a big deal about the whole… trans thing.” you rest your arm on the table.

“It’s not my business, if you’re happy and comfortable that’s all I care about.” his hand is creeping closer, “I… I like you either way, I have no preference.”

His hand curls around yours and your stomach is about to jump out of your throat. Shit.

“I like you too.” you say. It’s the truth. He smiles and blinks softly at you, he’s really beautiful when he lets his guard down like this. He leans on the table and leans toward you, he’s…

Time feels like it slows down as your eyes flutter closed and you lean toward him and his lips catch on yours. It’s not your first kiss by any means, but you almost kinda wish it was. His lips are pillowy soft and thick and they fit so nicely against yours. He groans and his lips leave yours way too fast and time seems to catch back up to you.

He sits back with a thump and looks at you, “Sorry, sorry, sorry!”

“Why are you sorry? I obviously didn’t hate that.” you reach over and touch his arm.

“I.. uh, we’re… we’re in public and I just…” he shifts in his seat. You look at him, his face is darker around his cheeks and he’s curled in on himself. His eyes meet yours, they’re soft and brown like hot cocoa, “I think I liked that too much.”

Oh.

“Oh.” you say, like a giant idiot. He doesn’t seem to care how dumb you are, though.

“So… Dave… it’s 2:45 and I have to get back home,” he says and you feel your face frown, “Would you… want to do this again? With me, of course. I can pick where we eat next time, if you like.”

“Karkat, are you asking me on a date?” you say and he buries his face in his hands.

“Yes?” he answers cautiously and you smile.

“Of course. I’d love to. Want me to walk you home?” you ask.

“Yeah, okay.” he blushes as you take his hand.

* * *

 

You clear up the table, grab your stuff, and head out the door. You’re about two blocks away from Karkat’s house when you spot Dirk, riding your skateboard toward you. He waves at you, jumping off and jogging up to you.

“Hey, you… forgot your board in your locker,” he wipes his forehead and his eyes flick down toward your hand, still interlocked with Karkat’s. He smiles at you, “Finally, now I won’t have Rose and Rox’ breathing down my neck about getting you dorks together.”

“Dave, who is this?” Karkat asks putting his other hand on his hip and sizing up Dirk.

“First, Dirk, please ask before breaking and entering in my locker. Second, Ben says thanks for the help with the repair job. And third, Dirk is my brother.” you list off and Karkat looks enraged. Uh oh.

“Your Bro?” he hisses.

“You’ve got the wrong asshole. Bro is our older brother. Don’t worry, I don’t like him any more than you do.” Dirk smirks, “I’m the cooler, better brother, obviously. Dave’s my baby bro.”

Karkat relaxes and sighs, “I didn’t know Dave had another brother. But I see the resemblance.”

“Heading home? I was just about to stop by there and see if you were there.” Dirk asks.

“Yeah, walk with us.” you answer and start walking again. It’s only another two blocks from here.

When you finally get to Karkat’s house, Dirk has the decency to wait by the fence and not watch you.

“I had fun today.” Karkat says.

“Me too, thank you for hanging out with me.” you smile at him.

Karkat looks over at Dirk, who is playing with his phone and back to you.

“Kiss already, damn.” Dirk yells.

“Dirk!” you scowl at him, “Fuck off.”

Karkat does, in fact, kiss you, but it’s on the cheek. “See you on Monday. Goodbye Dave.” He opens his front door and walks in, waving to you before closing it.

You sigh and flip off Dirk when you get over to him. “Dick.” you give him a shove.

“Stupid.” he shoves you back.

“Ugly.” you call him and he narrows his eyes at you.

“Inconsiderate.” he says.

“Asshole.” you reply.

“Bastard child.” he sneers.

“As much as I love a verbal slap-fight, I’d love it even more if I weren’t standing in front of Karkat’s house when I beat the shit out of you,” you flick his nose.

“Don’t want your boyfriend to see you lose?” he jokes but doesn’t argue and starts walking the last half-block to your shitty apartment building.

“I don’t think he’d like you very much if he saw us beating each other up, even if it was just for fun.” you point out and Dirk’s mouth flattens into a line.

“He knows about Bro?” his eyes widen a little behind his glasses.

“I made him promise not to say anything, I really don’t think he wants me to be on the streets at sixteen.” you run your hand through your hair. Dirk sighs and throws his arms in the air.

“One more year, Dave. I’ll have enough money to get an apartment big enough for both of us and I’ll get you away from that fucking creep.” He wraps his arm around your shoulder. You’re finally at your building, you and Dirk take the elevator up.

“One more year,” you fist-bump him and open the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is about to take a crazy turn. Enjoy the song that's linked in this chapter btw, a lot of the music I use is stuff I actually like. :)  
> Hope you like the in-jokes in this chapter too! I like writing them lol.
> 
> Also, you can follow me on Tumblr http://nomisupernova.tumblr.com/


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey this chapter is a little intense. Here's a warning for graphic imagery and major character death.
> 
> This and the next chapter were one big chapter but it was really big so I cut it in half. I'm also working on a semi-coherent update schedule! New chapters should be posted two weeks from the date of the last one.
> 
> This fic has an official playlist series now! There's going to be a companion playlist for Rose, but this one is for Dave. New songs will be added with the new chapters. 
> 
> https://open.spotify.com/user/nomisupernova/playlist/1mFtWGlnbIuABbg63plcnt

“Home. Dirk’s with me.” you flatten out your voice and Dirk winces.

Bro leans his head back from his desk and looks at Dirk, Cal is on his shoulder. Fucking weirdo. “What are you doing here?”

“Hanging out with my brother on his birthday. Not that it’s any of your business anyway.” he flattens his voice out like you did. Bro can still be relentless with Dirk like he is with you but Dirk knows better than to piss Bro off too much for no reason.

“Whatever. Just be quiet I’m fucking working unlike some freeloaders around here,” he turns back to whatever he’s doing, typing something into his stupid Word document. 

Bro looks unsettlingly like Dirk, but Dirk is kind to you, in a ‘Bro from an alternate universe where you were Dirk’s parent’ kind of way. You know if you ever had a kid in an alternate universe, you’d make sure they had everything they needed and they were taken care of, even if you weren’t around to do it.

You shake your head, that’s a weird thought. Whatever. Dirk is here, time to chill the fuck out and maybe dip into the weed that Jake gave you. Relax for a little while, maybe Bro will leave and you and Dirk can hang out on the couch and watch some movies or something. Yeah, that sounds good.

You drag Dirk into your bedroom and close the door. He plops down onto your bed and makes an annoyed noise. “Hey, you don’t have any sheets on this,” he says.

“I was going to put some on when I got home.” You reply as you dig around in your closet for your clean bedsheets. Uh, that’s a shirt, no… not sheets, not sheets, that’s a pair of pants. You spot the pillowcase with last night’s sheets in them and feel sick. Why didn’t you just get rid of them this morning? Past you is a fucking loser.

“Need any help?” Dirk says from behind you and you nearly jump out of your damn skin. You didn’t hear him get up, not that you ever do. He’s always moving super quietly like his mom and Bro do.

“I-I got it,” you take a deep breath, “You scared the shit out of me.”

“Sorry?” He shrugs and you hand the clean sheets to him.

“Why did you take the other ones off?” he asks as he shakes the folds out of the new ones.

“They got dirty and needed to be cleaned.” you answer, hoping he doesn’t look too into this. Knowing Dirk though… he’s going to, you’d better think of something quick.

“Mmmhmm…” he hands you the corner of the sheets on your side and you pull them over the edges of the mattress, “What’s with the blood?”

You freeze, think Dave, think. 

“I got cut,” you answer.

He looks up toward the camera in the corner of the ceiling and looks back at you, “Okay.”

He obviously doesn’t believe you, but he’s not going to ask about it in a room with cameras. You hear the front door open and shut, sounds like Bro left or went up to the roof.

“What is he getting drunk on your birthday? What a fucking asshole.” Dirk grits his teeth, “Want to talk about it in private?”

“Okay, sure.” you can’t say no without accidently making yourself blab on camera.

He leads you into the bathroom, closes the door, and sits on the edge of the tub.

“Come here for a sec?” he asks and you sit by his side. He pulls your glasses off your face and sets them on the floor. He reaches into the shower and grabs a damp rag from the peg it was hanging on and rub it across your face and neck, exposing the bruised bite mark on your neck and collarbone.

“Jesus christ! Dave...” he gasps and drops the rag on the floor with a plop.

“Are you okay?” he grabs your head and tilts it upward, “Does that hurt? Fuck, dude. How did he hurt you like that?”

“How did you know about that?” you look over at him, pain is written all over his face. Shit shit shit shit shit.

“How about the magical appearing bruise on your neck when you were with Karkat? I know you didn’t get it from the kids in the locker room, they didn’t touch you.” he pulls you in for a hug, “God, I-I’m sorry I didn’t see it earlier.”

“I’m fine, it doesn’t hurt.” you push him away.

“Like hell you’re ‘fine’! What did that mother fucker do to you?” he grips onto your arms tightly and looks you in the eye.

“Dirk please, I want to tell you but I don’t know how,” you answer, curling your arms against your chest.

“I… I’m sorry, I must be scaring you,” he scoots back, “Did he hurt you?”

You nod and he looks angry, “How? How did he hurt you?”

“He…” you pause, “I don’t know, it happened so fast.” You close your eyes and see images from last night, cowering under your blanket, him coming in and staring at you, climbing under your sheets and… hurting you.

“I-I went to sleep. Bro came in my room and he was drunk.” you look down at your hands, you can’t look Dirk in the face when you tell him this, “He came into my bed and he… he…” You can’t say it. _ If you say it, it’s real and you can’t handle that. _

“Dave, Jesus, I-I don’t know what to say. Do you want to go to a hospital?” he brushes the hair from your eyes.

“I can’t, I just can’t. He’ll know if I did,” you swallow the lump in your throat, “Please promise me you won’t say anything.”

“Dave… I’m so sorry, I couldn’t keep you safe.” he pulls your head into his neck and embraces you, “I’ll kill him. I’ll fucking kill him.”

“Please don’t… say that.” you grip his shirt in your hands, “He’s not worth it, Dirk, I can’t lose you.”

“No, you’re right, he’s not worth it.” he’s shaking with anger, “But you are.”

He pushes you away gently before storming out of the bathroom. Bro is sitting at his desk again, his websites are open and he’s watching a recording of the house’s footage. You grab your glasses and follow behind Dirk and grab his arm, but he brushes you off. 

Bro turns his head and looks at Dirk, “What’s wrong with you?”

“What wrong with me? How about what’s wrong with you!? You fucking disgusting piece of shit.” Dirk yells and grabs Bro’s sword from the coffee table. 

Oh no. No no no. Your hands fly up to your face defensively and you can hear a faint ticking in your ears like a clock.

“Put that down,” Bro commands, standing up, he tries to grab Dirk’s head, but Dirk backs away, his arm in front of you, protecting you like he did this morning.

“You’re disgusting. How could you do that? And to your own fucking brother! He’s your brother, you’re supposed to protect him!!” Dirk yells, his voice teetering on hysterical. The sword in his hand swings in the air, nearly connecting with Bro’s head. The ticking is getting faster and louder, it’s unbearable.

“Dirk, stop! Stop!” you just want the ticking to stop, you want the yelling to stop.

“Don’t you have anything to say for yourself? Are you even fucking sorry?” Dirk clenches his teeth, his hands tighten around the grip. Tick, tick, tick, tick!

Bro is backed up to the wall, his eyes are darting around the room looking for a way out. He smiles and looks Dirk in the eyes.

“I’m not sorry for taking what he wasn’t going to use anyway,” Bro grabs something and throws it at Dirk’s head, but he ducks and it misses his head, embedding in the wall next to your head. 

It’s a short-sword, sharp too. It probably would’ve killed you if you’d been six inches to the left. Dirk is suddenly against him, sharp sword pressed to Bro’s throat, preventing him from moving without goring himself.

Dirk leans into it and it cuts into Bro’s neck, his blood oozing out of the cut and onto the edge.

“I hope you fucking burn in hell, you festering pile of human waste,” he hisses through clenched teeth. 

“Don’t! Don’t do it Dirk, he’s not worth it,” you step forward carefully, you can still fix this. You have to.

Dirk’s eyes flick toward you and Bro lunges toward him, but Dirk is faster. You clench your eyes shut as you hear the sickening sound of bone against metal. Bro makes a strangled sound and screams.

“Oh god…” you hear Dirk whisper and the sword drop to the ground, a thump, and heavy strained breathing. Like someone gasping for air while drowning.

Something wet pools at your feet, your eyes are still tightly clenched as you fall to the ground, backing up to the wall.

“Dave, Dave, we… we have to get out of here.” a hand grabs your shoulder, “We have to run, Dave. Dave?”

“Don’t touch me!” your eyes fly open, Bro is laying face-down on the plush beige carpet, a pool of blood forming at his throat, he’s still sputtering for air, wheezing and choking on blood at it fills his lungs.

Dirk steps back cautiously, his hands and shirt are spattered in blood. You need to go back, you need this to change.

“I-I’m sorry, god, I’m sorry Dave,” Dirk is muttering, his blood covered hands fly up to his hair. The wheezing sound from Bro has stopped. He’s approaching you and fear curls in the pit of your stomach. Dirk… killed someone.

“Don’t touch me! Stop!” your arms fly up in front of you and then…

Nothing. No sound, no feelings, no ticking.

* * *

 

You look around, it’s like time itself has stopped around you.

“Dirk?” you reach forward and touch his shoulder carefully, his body is frozen in place, “Dirk? What’s going on?”

“Oh hey, you can time-travel now, sweet,” you hear a voice call out to you, it sounds oddly like yourself. You stand and whip your head around behind you, someone is standing there, he looks a lot like you, but… he’s obviously not you. At least, not this you. Wait, what? Not  _ this _ you? What are you saying?? He’s wearing a red outfit with a long stupid cape.

“You okay? That was pretty rough even for me,” his hands touch your face, it feels wrong… almost like when you touch your own face but… not quite.

“Who… who are you?” you ask him, you can see Dirk’s horrified face is still staring at the spot where you were sitting behind you.

“To save you the longest explanation this side of Skaia, I’m you, but I’m not you,” other-Dave says, “I’m you from a different timeline. You froze time. I don’t get how but hey, here you are, you bullheaded little fucker.”

“How are you me? You… you can’t be me.” you step back from other-Dave.

“Why, cuz ‘ _ you’re the only you!! _ ’ fucking lol,” he says, “Here’s the thing about time-travel, Dave, there’s a fuck ton of us. I’ll let that sink in for a moment.”

“But… but you’re…” you gesture toward his entire body.

“Yes, I know. You and I have different bodies, I died for this one so I’m taking damn good care of it, it’s the body we always wanted and more, if you get what I mean.” he winks at you. His voice is also different from yours, deeper and smoother.

“Wait, wait, hold up. How? How did you...?” That’s not possible... what the fuck is going on here?

“Skaia can be a cruel mistress, but she’s kind enough to give her disciples at least a few of the things they want. I see she gave you Karkat in this timeline too, but he doesn’t look like the Karkat I know at all. She also let you have Dirk, but cursed you with Bro. You should be so lucky, you cute little fucker.” he leans forward and pinches your cheek, “Now, let’s talk about the elephant in the room, and by that I mean the body.”

You look down at Bro’s body, the blood stopped pooling and he doesn’t move or make any sounds. Well fuck, Dirk really got ahead of himself, didn’t he?

“Dirk really got ahead of himself, didn’t he?” he mirrors your thoughts, because of course he does, “So, where did this start?”

“What?” you ask, confused.

“The timeline, ugh. Come here a sec,” he grabs your arm, “First, I want to say damn I was hot as fuck when I was your age. I mean, how does Karkat not melt into a little puddle when he looks at your cute self?”

Your face heats up and he laughs, “Aww, so that’s what I look like when I do that.”

“Hey, fuck off,” you try to push him away, but he’s got a strong grip on you.

“Alright, alright... I’ll be serious. Close your eyes,” he pushes your glasses up onto your forehead, resting on you the way you like them to.

“Okay, now what?” You’re skeptical that this just a dream, but if it’s a dream, then what’s the harm in complying?

“Focus on the feeling you felt when you stopped time,” his voice sounds far away but you can feel that he’s still gripping your arms, his forehead is pressed against yours, “I’ll help you visualize it.”

You see nothing and then…

You see a line, a red line. You turn around and see it’s forked just behind you, the one you’re standing on ends abruptly just ahead of you. You can see the other-Dave’s arms on you as he guides you backwards and around the fork, onto the other path.

“See how that one goes on? That’s another timeline, it’s not the right one but I’m just giving you an example.” he whispers into your ear, “The one you’re in right now ends because something kills you. You don’t want to be there when that happens.”

“What kills me?” you ask, eyes still shut but your head tilts toward him anyway.

He hesitates for a moment, “You.”

Oh.

“Oh,” you feel numb and gross. You wouldn’t do that, right?

“Trust me, you would,” he says like he can read your thoughts, “Your brain thought it would be better to die than live without your brother. And by brother, I mean Dirk.”

“Now listen, you see that line, all the way back there?” You can see a long line, leading all the way back. A picture is moving in front of it, swaying back and forth slightly as if being blown by the wind. You don’t feel any wind, though.

“Now, we’re going to walk back toward it, you’re going to feel something, but don’t be alarmed, it’s just your body healing your wounds,” he says it like he’s done this before. He probably has.

Your legs move in time with his, walking closer to the picture, you can see it’s a Polaroid picture of yourself when you were fifteen, six months ago, before you first moved in with Bro. There’s a bright smile on your face and Dirk, Roxy, and Rose are all standing with you. You remember taking this picture, you were all hanging out at your dad’s house before he left on business, it was the last time you saw him. You remember that he never called you once while he was gone and died in the big car crash a month later on his way home.

“Remember that? You tell everyone you hate your dad, but you and I both know you love him,” he grips your arms tighter, “But he wasn’t my dad in my timeline, he was Dirk’s dad only. He was us from another timeline. Same stupid name as us, too. We were always going to be David fucking Strider.”

“All this timeline shit makes my head hurt,” you grimace, he’s not this Dave’s dad? He’s actually you? What the fuck??

“You get used to it,” other-Dave says. 

You notice the dull stinging on your back and in your legs has turned into a sharp feeling like a knife.

“Healing, huh? Then why the fuck does it hurt so much, assface?”

“Don’t fucking open your eyes, whatever you do. If you do, I might drop you in the middle of some rando timeline and I don’t know if I’ll be able to see you again until you nearly die.” his hand is suddenly over your eyelids, “I mean it, I don't want that for any of us. Dying sucks. If I drop you off where you’re supposed to be, I can see you anytime I want and you can keep your powers. That’s why I’m here, to help you cheat this time a little.”

“What? Cheat? Cheat at what?” you ask, the picture is in front of you and your feet land on the red line leading up to it.

“You can ask me questions tonight, right now I need you to listen. I’m going to let you go, the Dave in this timeline is going to split off and become you, but you need to do something. Here’s where this timeline converges into yours, this is the closest one and I’m sorry that it isn’t closer to Karkat.” he sounds genuinely sad about that.

“You need to hide your dad’s passport, burn it for all I care. He won’t have enough time to get a new one. You’ll still have your memories but nobody else is going to as far as I know, so you’re on your own. You need to stop your dad from going on the trip, or you’ll get sent to live with Bro and you’ll die again.” he sighs, “Don’t fuck this up, you’ll still see Karkat at school. Talk to him, he likes you in every timeline, he likes you even more when he’s not completely pale for you.”

“Pale?” you ask.

“It’s a long story, we’ll talk tonight. Don’t fucking forget the passport. I mean it, this Dave bought you time and went to the bathroom, your dad is downstairs with Dirk, Roxy, and Rose. Go into his room in the bedside table, grab the passport, get rid of it, and he should still be there in the morning.” he pulls his hands away from your face, “If you need to use your powers, you’ll know what to do. I can come to you anytime, but make sure it’s a damn emergency or really important, Karkat will be pissed if he knows I’m fucking with your timeline.”

_ “Open your eyes.” _


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a vague feeling people are going to be a little tiny tiny tiny bit upset with a thing in this chapter, so I'm going to clarify it before you read it.
> 
> Roxy and Dirk are both 18 and they are both seniors in Dave's school. You'll see why I'm pointing this out when you get to it. If you don't get it then that's probably okay too lol.
> 
> Dirk and Roxy are getting playlists too, they're not done yet so they'll be linked in the next chapter. But for now, here's Rose's!
> 
> https://open.spotify.com/user/nomisupernova/playlist/6rZouaZsc2VAkrLIcMSIfv?si=yiPZWsiNTG-I6eLnS7Riww

You gasp and grab at your arms, they feel less… muscular. Your legs and arms also have less hair on them. You remember this house. You remember this moment. You were up here taking a stretch with your binder off, your dad was going to get you surgery on your birthday, he promised you. Your lungs breathe in and out easily, no cracked ribs, no badly-stitched wounds. No scars on your stomach and chest, no bite mark on your neck.

“Dave? You okay up there? You were coughing pretty hard earlier, kid. Did you cut your mouth? That was a lot of blood...” it’s a voice you haven’t heard in half a year. It makes your heart ache in a way you never thought you’d feel. Like seeing an old friend after the last time you spoke was an argument.

“Dad…” you sigh, “I’ll be down in a minute, I’m okay!”

“You sure?” he yells back, but you don’t hear his feet coming up the stairs.

“Yep, just finishing up.” you go to pull your binder back on, but you were apparently playing chicken with yourself and put the tightest one on today. You remember how much this hurt, so you yank it back off and instead pull your shirt back on over your head and dash across the hall to your old bedroom.

The walls in this room were painted by you and Dirk when you were kids. You remember Dirk uses… used… would’ve used this as a darkroom in your old timeline.

_ “No time for that now Dave, you’ve got to listen to what I said. Get the passport, get rid of it. That’s it.” _

You tiptoe out of your old… your bedroom and down the hall to your dad’s room. Okay, he said it’d be in the side-drawer? You slide the drawer open and pull the passport out, stuffing it into your pocket.

“Nice,” you whisper to yourself and turn around.

“Whatcha got?” Dirk asks, standing with his arms crossed in the doorway.

“Uh, nothing. Why are you following me around?” you lock eyes with him and he stares at you for a second.

“Hmm… you’ve got a strange look in your eyes,” oh no, he’s head-shrinking you, ALERT ALERT, RUN!! 

“What do you need Dad’s passport for, Dave?” he whispers.

You think about something Dave said... what was it? It’s already starting to slip from your brain.

_ “You’ll still have your memories but nobody else is going to as far as I know, so you’re on your own.”  _ Nobody else  _ as far as he knows? _ Was he suggesting Dirk might know? But how to see if he does know... Think, Strider, think.

“Daaaaave?” he waves his hand in front of your shades, you must’ve spaced out.

“Hey Dirk, you wouldn’t happen to know anything about time-travel would you?” you ask, fiddling with your nails and trying to look innocent.

“...That’s a specific question. Who wants to know?” he tilts his head at you and scratches at his chin.

“Let’s say... some douchebag in a red cape asked me about time-travel. What would I tell him?” you look at Dirk as his eyes widen.

“A… red cape... huh?” he swallows thickly.

You knew it!

“You know, don’t you!?” you point your finger at his face, “About the other Daves and the other timelines!”

“I mean… I know that there’s other Dirks... theoretically?” he shrugs with a smile like he got caught doing something he wasn’t supposed to do, “What do you know about timelines?”

“Dirk, okay, thank  _ fuck. _ We can talk in a bit, I have to hide this passport. Please don’t say anything to anyone about this. This is important. If I don’t hide this, I will  _ actually _ die again and I can’t risk that. I made a promise.” you walk quickly into your bedroom and stuff the passport underneath your dresser.

“What do you know?” he asks again, grabbing your arm.

“Dirk. Later,  _ please. _ I have to get back down there and act like I’m fifteen again and our dad didn’t die in a horrible accident. I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow so let’s just play it by ear, okay?” you remember how angry he was for your safety. He literally killed a man for you. 

You’re honestly not sure if that terrifies you or makes you feel safe. 

Maybe both.

He lets go of you and stares at you for a second. He crosses his arms and sighs deeply before padding off in the direction of the stairs. You close your bedroom door and decide what to wear instead.

You take your shades off decide to forego the binder and just change into a tight undershirt instead. six-months-ago you wasn’t very kind to himself. You throw your regular t-shirt on over that and you brush your hair back into place in your old (wow, you’ve got to stop thinking of this stuff as your old stuff) mirror and head back down to the closed-in porch.

You recall your dad threw together his best impression of a family dinner; Rose, Roxy, their mom, Dirk’s mom, Dirk, yourself, and Dad were all having lunch when you started coughing up blood. You remember you hadn’t thought much of it but wanted a break from your binder incase that was the problem. It’s a little fuzzy, but you remember that Rose was offering to run upstairs with you and help you out, but you demanded to be alone for a little bit. You don’t remember why you wanted to be alone, now that you think of it.

“Hey, Davey, you doin’ okay, little guy?” Roxy, Rose’s older sister and Dirk’s best friend asks you.

“Rox...” Dirk rolls his eyes at her and looks over at you, “He’s fine, right Dave?”

“Yeah, I’m cool. Not sure what that was, but it wasn’t really much of anything I guess,” you shrug, you really don’t remember anything being wrong.

“Well, keep an eye out for more of that, I don’t want you getting hurt, Dave,” Rose looks over at you, her hair is shorter than it was when you saw her not that long ago. She also still had it naturally sandy brown instead of the blonde and purple she has… will have now.

You can see Dirk’s mom roll her eyes, “I don’t see what the big huff is, she said she’s fine so she’s fine!”

“Mother,” Dirk hisses at her, “Knock it off.” Now you remember why you and Dirk fucking hated her so much. Not seeing her for six months will do that to you.

She tilts her head, like Dirk and Bro do when they’re about to adjust something to their worldview, “It’s just biology honey… if she wants to put on a tight shirt and call herself Dave then she can deal with me calling her what she is. A damn woman playing pretend.” She tilts her glass back and downs the rest of it in a big gulp.

Everyone stares at her, you remember there was an argument over something. There’s a tickle of a voice at the edge of your brain.

_ “Ask Rose about her girlfriend, get Dirk’s mom to leave.” _

“Hey Rose…” you start, is this really smart? You sure hope so. “I heard you have a girlfriend now, how’s that going?”

You see Rose smile softly, “Oh, Dave, did you see us? I thought we were being secretive… I guess the cat’s out everyone…”

“Aww, Rosalinda, congratulations!” Rose’s mom, Roxanne, leans over and kisses her daughter on the top of the head.

“I don’t see why it has to be a thing! Why can’t you gays just do that in private?!” Dirk’s mom curls her lip in disgust at Rose.

“Don’t be like that, honey, Rosie isn’t hurting anything. Dirk and his boyfriend are publicly affectionate, I’ve seen them do so at your house,” Roxanne chides Dirk’s mom, you really can’t remember her name but it’s not like it matters because you remember how this goes down.

“Well my Dirk may still be able to be saved by the grace of the Lord unlike your heathen of a daughter,” she hisses, “God forgives those who repent for their filthy sins.”

You see Dirk’s face fall, the smile he had before now a far-away look like someone just smacked him in the face. Roxy seems to have noticed too and she stands up and walks over to Dirk’s mom, glass of ice water in hand. She looks fucking furious and ready for a fight.

“What?” she looks up at Roxy, just in time for Roxy’s drink to come spilling on top of her head.

“Go fuck yourself, you transphobic, homophobic trash-queen,” Roxy smiles sweetly, “I hope hell burns especially bright for you.”

She stands up, make-up smearing down her face and gasps dramatically before stomping off out the front door. She slams it behind her just in time for your dad to come out the inside door.

“What the fuck crawled up her ass and died?” he watches her as she revs up her engine and drives off, “She can’t even be normal for one damn day.”

“Dad…” you feel so relieved to see his face that you run up to him and wrap your arms around his torso. You remember how you blamed him for living with Bro, but Bro was the only one in your biological family still alive and over twenty-one so you didn’t get much of a choice. You wish you could take that all back.

And you can.

“Oh, Dave, are you okay?” he leans down to look at you with soft eyes.

“I’m fine Dad, I just… I’ll miss you when you leave,” you squeeze him tighter.

You hear your brother “aww”ing with the Lalonde family and Dirk’s arms wrap around you and your dad. Impromptu group-hug it is, you guess.

“I love you boys, I’m not going anywhere anytime soon if I can help it,” he ruffles your hair and then pats Dirk’s head too, “I’m sorry about your mom, buddy.”

“Don’t be, Dad, she’s just… like that.” you hear the smile in Dirk’s voice. God, you miss that.

“Oh David, I don’t understand what you saw in that woman. She’s a frightful piece of work,” Roxanne laughs politely, she didn’t even bother to lecture Roxy. She seems damn proud of her, if anything.

“Well she didn’t used to be like that…” Dad squeezes you once more and drops his arms to his side, “It doesn’t matter. Anyway, everyone, who’s up for dinner? I just finished it. It’s your favorite, Dirk.”

Dinner is… weird. You don’t really remember how to act at a regular family dinner so Dad chides you a few times for playing around with your phone. But when he’s talking to Roxanne long enough, you get to check the date. June 11th, 2011. Dad was going to leave for California tomorrow to head in for the director’s meeting. But he can’t leave now. You silently wonder what’s going to happen when the timeline breaks off into the new one. Will you have to relive the next six months or will your consciousness drop off on your birthday six months from now? You’ll have to ask other-Dave tonight. He said he’d see you when you sleep. Does that mean he can talk to you in your dreams?

“Dave?” Dirk’s elbow jabs you in the side, “You paying attention? Roxy asked you something.”

“Oh, sorry. I spaced out, what’s up Rox?” you shake your head.

“I asked if you saw that cute boy that moved in down the road from Derick, he’s your age Davey.” she winks at you. Oh, that’s right. Karkat had moved to America today, what a fucking coincidence.

“Uh, no. What.. what’s his name?” you don’t want them to know that you already know. You remember this is when you first heard about Karkat.

“His name is Karkat Vantas, he’s a little cutie. You better make a move on that one,” she giggles.

“Wait, why were you at Derick’s house?” Dirk asks, drawing attention away from you, “Don’t tell me you were…”

“Eww Dirky no! God, I’m desperate but I’m not that desperate. Besides, Derick is old enough to be my dad!” she throws her hands up but her face is red.

“He’s only thirty-three, Roxy. Do you have a thing for older men now?” Rose teases.

“Even if I did it sure wouldn’t be for Derick! That guy is… not my type and I don’t think I’m his type either.” she leans on her hand, “He’s so obviously gay it hurts.”

“He’s not gay, Rox, he’s just not into kids. Which is what you are to him. Please don’t hit on my older brother,” Dirk points toward her with a fork, “Don’t know why you’d be interested in him in the first place.”

“Jeez Dad, can you make any straight sons?” you laugh and your Dad sighs.

“Apparently not, it seems.” he sips his drink, it’s his classic ‘one glass of celebratory whiskey and then soda for the rest of the night’ whiskey, “Alright y’all, I’ve got to get my case packed up and ready to go. I’ll be back in a bit.”

He pats your head as he walks past you and up the stairs to his bedroom.

As if on cue, Rose’s mom’s phone rings. She grabs it with a sigh and heads over to the front door. “Girls, I’ve gotta answer this. I’ll be outside. Holler if you need me.”

“So Dave, where’s your glasses?” Rose asks. You didn’t even realize you didn’t have them on.

“I uh, forgot to put them back on, I guess.” you shrug, “S’not a big deal, my eyes don’t hurt.”

Rose looks at you, or rather, through you. She’s always had this weird feeling about her, like she can see right into your soul.

“If you insist.” she reaches across the table and she takes your hand in hers, still looking you in the eye. “You know… something is strange about you this evening, Dave. It’s like you’re a different person.” She can’t know too, can she?

“You think so too?” Dirk asks, “I caught him running around upstairs earlier like he just got dropped off in some haunted house.”

“Oh you two! Stop picking on him,” Roxy gives Rose a push and her hand comes away from yours, “Davey is just gonna miss his dad, there’s nothing wrong with that.”

“Yeah, exactly. So back off, y’all,” you fold your arms against yourself, you try to ignore the gross feeling of your chest. You’ve got bigger fish to fry, afterall. 

Rose and Dirk are being weirdly cagey today. You know why Dirk is, but Rose is ever the mystery to you.

Your dad comes back down the stairs, phone in one hand and scratching his head with the other. So he found out that his passport is gone, you guess.

“I can’t find my passport and it’s too late to get a replacement, I’m gonna have to call and see what the director can do and if he can’t do anything, I guess I have to miss this shit,” he runs a hand down his face, “Just my fucking luck.”

_ “Mr. Strider, _ such language!” Roxy fake-gasps.

“Oh shit, sorry kids.” your dad blushes, it’s pretty hilarious to watch him get worked up over it.

“I’ve heard worse from Dave’s potty mouth, Dad. You’re totally fine.” Dirk smiles.

Roxanne leans into the door, her phone still pressed to the side of her head, “Hey girls, we have to head out. I’m needed back at the office, sorry. See you soon, boys.” She ducks back out of the door and presses a button on her phone.

Roxy sighs and stands up, carrying her plate over to the sink. Rose follows behind her, grabbing up your plate and Dirk’s as well, you nod to her and mutter a thank you.

“Alright, guess I’ll see y’all around then,” Dirk holds up his fist and Roxy bumps it.

“Bye kids, tell your mom to drive safe,” Dad says to Rose and oh  _ boy, _ the irony here.

“I hope things work out for you, Mr. Strider, if not then we’ll see you later, dude.” Roxy says with a smile and leads Rose out of the front door.

 

* * *

 

“Wanna watch a movie?” Dirk asks you.

“I’m actually pretty beat, I think I’m gonna head off to bed… if you don’t mind,” his eyes are hidden behind his shades but you can feel him staring holes through you.

“Good night, Dave. I’ll see you in the morning if this doesn’t work out.” your dad hugs you and kisses the top of your head.

“I’ll walk you up, I wanted to talk to you about something anyway.” Dirk wraps his arm around your shoulders and pulls you in for a side-hug.

“Can’t say no, we live in the same damn house,” you shrug.  _ Great! _ How are you even going to explain this?

He lets you go and you head up to your bedroom. It feels… almost weird to be in here. Dirk’s mom ended up getting the house after your dad died and Dirk took over your bedroom and used it as a darkroom. It only has one window so it was good for that. You never really came in here unless Dirk needed to show you a photo or you borrowed some of his chemicals for your own photography. 

His mom was never here when you were here, she was always gone drinking or fucking off doing her own thing. Bro’s old room down the hall was used to store your dad’s old stuff, but while Dad was alive, it was Dad’s office. 

“So, timeline stuff… where are you from?” Dirk asks bluntly.

“I’m not some fucking stranger dude, I’m still your brother,” you laugh a little at that, “You never really changed much.”

Dirk sits on the beanbag chair in the corner of your room and you sit on the bed. It feels almost like a therapy session, except the patient is asking all the questions from his idiot chair.

“What happens if Dad dies?” he doesn’t cut any corners. He reaches up and rubs at his throat absent-mindedly.

“Well… I’m not sure if you really want to know that. You think you want to know but, do you really  _ really _ want to?” you lean back and look up at the ceiling. Still got those stupid plastic glowing stars up there, you remember that Bro helped you put them up there when you were a little kid. Before he was a complete piece of shit and Dad kicked him out.

“I think I do, I need to know what the deal is with this,” he tilts his head up and there’s something that looks like rope burn on his neck, “I was playing it cool at dinner but… I think some version of me just… y’know… killed themselves.”

“What?” you don’t remember other-Dave saying anything like that…

“Another me just hung himself. I’m always vaguely aware of what they’re up to, or at least what they’re feeling. I only really get to feel anything intense from them if they die. And that Dirk really hated himself for something he did.” he says. 

This doesn’t make sense, you’ve never felt anything from another Dave… Maybe Dirk is different somehow?

“I mean, I can tell you what I know but… I can’t exactly give you all the answers, I can’t even use my time-shit yet, I only stopped time, not moved it.” Now that you’re thinking about it, this stuff kinda makes sense to you. Time travel movies always fascinated you in a way nothing else really did, besides the whole ‘collecting cool dead shit’ hobby, of course. Photography is about the same really, pictures are almost like capturing a moment in a physical form.

“Well, future-you kinda… killed someone. I think it’s pretty safe to say you probably got arrested. Apparently the ‘me’ in that timeline, which is me right now, ends up dying or something, but I don’t get why you would die. Can’t say I really want to be myself in that timeline now then, do I?” You watch Dirk’s face rapidly shift between the five stages of grief, you think that’s a pretty normal reaction to hearing you would kill someone, even if it’s not really you.

“One question, who… umm, who did I kill?” he asks. You were really hoping to avoid telling him because he might ask why and you’re not sure if you’re ready to talk about that. You’re also not sure if he would do it again, if given the chance. But… this is Dirk, he wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.

“Does it matter?” you chew at the inside of your lip, please just drop it dude.

“Yeah, it does. Besides, I think I have a right to know,” he narrows his eyes at you, studying your face. Another lie detector test, huh? Fine.

“Bro,” you shrug, he hopefully won’t dig any further.

“I can’t say I’m exactly shocked but still… fuck, dude,”  he buries his face in his hands, “I hope whatever future me did wasn’t in front of you or anything. I’d hate to do that to you and mess you up for life.”

“Well if it helps, I wasn’t exactly watching you do it… I was kinda freaked the fuck out,” ugh, you can’t stop seeing Dirk’s blood covered hands, and Bro’s body just laying there gasping for air, drowning in his own blood. The ticking, the fucking ticking. It wouldn’t stop and you just had to make it stop.

“You okay? You look... not so good, we don’t have to talk about it anymore if you want to stop.” He’s standing in front of you now, you didn’t hear him get up. You never really do unless he wants to be heard. 

“Dave, I’m sorry for what it’s worth,” he pushes your hair back and tucks it behind your ear. 

Your dad always used to do this when you would get hurt as a kid. He’d scoop you up in his arms and pet your head and hum to you until you calmed down, then he’d tuck your hair behind your ear and kiss your cheek. Dirk may not be fully related to you, but he’s more like your dad than his disgusting mom and you’re forever thankful for that.

“I just want to sleep, I didn’t… I didn’t get much sleep last night,” it hardly feels like it was twenty-four hours ago, it feels a million years away that you were in your bed last night… or rather, where you slept on the floor.

“Okay, I’ll leave you to it then,” he gives you a long hug, he doesn’t give these out too often so you’ll take it when you can get it. He may be bony as all hell, but his hugs are nice. 

“Good night, lil’ dude,” he walks out of the door and closes it softly, leaving you in your… your bedroom by yourself. 

“ _ You’re safe here, there’s no Bro coming to hurt you _ ,” you think to yourself, “ _ Everything is going to be okay _ .” 

You walk over to your closet and look through your clothes. You had some of these in your other timeline, but some of these are a bit old. Your pajamas should be around here somewhere…. Ah, there they are. Hmm, you really thought purple was such a good idea back then so you’ve got tons of purple t-shirts with big crescent moons embroidered on them. Maybe it was an irony thing you picked up from Dirk? You vaguely recall him having something similar… It’s probably nothing though.

As you change, you notice that all the scars and old bruises on your body that you’ve accumulated in the last five months are gone, but the first one Bro ever gave you is still there. You guess time can only heal wounds that happened during it, not before it. You still have the bloodstain on the carpet in this room from the first one. 

When you were thirteen, Bro came in here under the pretenses of playing games with you and he just… stabbed you. You screamed and screamed and Dad scrambled upstairs and berated the fuck out of Bro, he threatened to have him arrested too. Weirder thing is… Bro seemingly doesn’t remember doing it in the first place. Even when you showed him the scar, he screamed at you for lying and just beat the shit out of you even more for asking him so you’d stopped bringing it up. You miss how nice he used to be before he got a taste for puppets and got that weird one he’s always with… Cal. 

You feel a shudder up your spine, man, fuck puppets. And now you hate yourself for missing your brother, but you just can’t help it. You really, really do miss when he was a nice person. Doesn’t stop it from feeling gross, though. 

You flick the lights off and look at the ceiling, you make another of your famous mental notes to rip the damn stars off and paint some of your own on. You want nothing to do with anything Bro touched if you can help it. 

It takes a while to fall asleep, your body is still convinced that at any moment, Bro is going to come in here and try to hurt you or worse. But he doesn’t, and after nearly an hour of laying there listening to Dirk’s movie through the wall your bed is pressed against, you finally fall asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was really hard not to post this sooner, but I'd like to stick to my schedule as strictly as possible lol
> 
> I've been working really hard editing with @turntechGeneticist717 on Book Covers (which if you haven't read, you absolutely should!) so I've only got up until Chapter 11 written, but things should get back on track. Hopefully y'all won't notice any difference. :)


	9. Chapter 9: Intermission

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters? In one day?? THE AUTHOR HAS GONE INSANE, SURELY.
> 
> Haha, kidding mostly! The next two chapters are absolutely massive, though. And this is an Intermission Chapter so I felt it was best to go ahead and post it!

Something is slapping your face, what the hell?

“Duuuuuuuude, how long are you going to lay there? If you want to get your sweet Karkat wet-dreams on, you need to get up and talk to me.” It’s your voice. Oh, right. It’s other-Dave.

“Stop calling me other-Dave. I have a name and just because it’s the same as yours doesn’t mean you get to stick some stupid prefix on it and call it a day, asshole,” you open your eyes to see him pout at you.

“Sorry, it’s… jesus dick, where the fuck are we?” it looks like your bedroom but it’s… all wonky and warped. All the pictures on the wall are warped glitched garbage or Karkat’s face. The walls are also a deep shade of purple and there’s scribbles all over the walls.

“You’re sleeping, this is your dreamself’s room in the bubbles. Notice anything different about yourself?” he’s smiling smugly at you, like you’re missing a really obvious joke.

“Like what? Other than I’m wide awake and I’m still tired as fuck,” you throw the blankets off and get out of the bed… wait a minute... what… the  **FUCK.**

“Hahaha! Holy shit dude! Your face right now! Laugh. My. Ass. Off.” 

You want to punch him for laughing at you, hey this is a dream right? Why the fuck not! You punch him in the side and he keeps laughing.

“What the fuck is this! How are you doing this?” you stand up too quickly and… ugh! What the FUCK is that!?

“Dude, chill out. It takes some getting used to, but you’ll live. You wanted this body so badly, well now you have it. But only here.” he finger-guns at you, “Alright, be serious Strider.0, you can jerk it later when I leave but I need you to pay attention, ‘kay?”

“Man, why the fuck would I do that?” your voice is noticeably deeper too, just like othe… Dave’s.

“Dude, that’s like, what you do with a different body. You get to touch all over the parts you don’t normally get to touch,” he shrugs, “S’what I did.”

“Ugh! That’s fucking gross, TMI much?” you sit back down on the bed. Having something… flapping around down there is not exactly  _ pleasant _ when you’re hyper-aware of it. Great.

“Real shit though, did you do what I said?” he floats upward and crosses his legs, “And before you ask, yes I can always float, you can right now if you really want to. You’re in a dream bubble afterall. Go ape shit, I guess.”

“I wasn’t gonna ask but o-fucking-kay. And yeah, now I’ve got some questions for you, uh, if that’s cool?” Christ, are you always this smug and irritating? 

“Yes, you are. Ask away, you smug piece of shit.” he finger-guns at you, “Rapid-fire that shit, homie.”

“Why is Dirk connected to the timeline shit?” you ask. 

“Heart players and their fucking splinters man. It doesn’t make sense to me but it’s kinda like…” he adjusts his legs and pushes up his shades, “It’s like when you’re play tug-of-war and someone in the front falls down. You can’t see them but you feel them fall down because the line slips, right?”

You nod, that makes sense. Just because you can’t see them fall doesn’t mean you can’t feel the rope tug when they leave.

He nods back to you and continues, “Now, imagine millions of Dirk’s and any given Dirk slips and falls or walks off and away the rope, all the other Dirk’s might not be able to see him, but they can feel him leave, right? Just replace rope with timeline and… yeah. It’s like that.”

“I guess that makes sense… but I’ve never felt anything from any other Dave,” you say, “Why is Dirk able to feel them but I’m not? And what’s a heart player?”

“Well from what I  _ can _ see, you’re not going to be playing the game for a while, but I don’t suppose it’ll kill you to tell you this shit,” he sighs, “So there’s this game that makes a new universe and you’re supposed to play it. I’m from a successful version of the game and in most of your timelines you don’t play it, but…”

He pauses and fiddles with his nails, “I can’t actually tell what’s going to happen in this timeline, which is kinda why I wanted you in it. I can see the doomed ones just fine, but this one timeline I can’t tell what the deal is. If you stay here I can jam with my Dirk about what we should do for you next.”

“Your Dirk?” your head is spinning, is Dave just… using you? No, he wouldn’t do that. That’s not something you would do.

“Super complicated timey-spacey bullshit, my Dirk is technically my dad but from another timeline, but he’s my bro to me so… yeah. You’ve still got your biological dad here too so you didn’t get off that easy,” he frowns a little.

Wait a minute, what?

“Biological dad? What are you talking about?” your head might be spinning a little too much.

“Aww fuck, guess you didn’t know then, huh?” he stops floating and rests on the bed next to you, “Your Bro, the one Dirk killed? That’s your biological dad.”

No, that… that can’t be right. Your dad is your dad. David is your dad.

“David isn’t… I mean, he is! Don’t get me wrong, he raised you since you were a newborn, he practically is your dad. But the one who supplied the genes wasn’t him, it was Bro. He’s your dad. David is technically your grandfather,” he bites his lip, “Christ, I’m sorry, I thought you knew. This was a Grade-A fucking dick move. I’m sorry, Dave.”

“How is that even possible? He’s way too young to have a kid as old as me,” he’s got to be wrong, he just has to be.

“Mmm, ‘fraid not. He was eighteen when you were born. Some girl he went to school with is your biological mom, she skipped out on you in the hospital. That doesn’t matter, your real parents are David and Roxanne as far as I’m concerned. They helped raise you together and all.” he leans on your side.

“No! No fucking way! He  _ can’t _ be! David is my dad! Bro can’t be! I’m nothing like him!” you shove him away. This can’t be fucking happening!

“Dave… I know you’re mad as hell, I know I was! My Bro didn’t hurt me like yours did, but I… I just want you to know I’m here for you,” god, he’s so fucking insufferably nice.

“He… he knew I was… He knew I was his kid and… he still…” well, it’s a good thing this is a dream, you can barf on the floor and not worry about cleaning it up.

“I don’t- I don’t know what to say here, man. God, I’m such an asshole.”

You look over at him and you wince at the look on his face. You wonder if that’s what you look like when you’re having an episode.

“It’s… it’s fine. I just- I just need a minute,” you wipe your face with your sleeve, hey no barf! This really is a dream.

“You wanna talk about something else?” he cradles your face in his hands.

You take a deep breath, yeah, it would be good to think about something else right now. “Anything else. Please. What’s Rose’s deal?”

“Rose is… weird. She’s a Seer of Light. She can see all the shit you don’t want her to see, it’s pretty annoying but…” he lets you go, “I think your Rose has an idea about Seeing, but she’s blind right now. Metaphorically. She has… problems… she’ll come to you when she’s ready, I’m sure. It’s not really my business to blab about your problems, obviously I’ve already done enough of that...”

He tilts his head at you, “You gonna be okay? I can wake you up if you want to.”

“No, no. It’s fine. Let’s… do something else.” you stand up and dust your shirt off.

He grabs your arm and you twist your head to look at him. What now?

“What?” you ask.

He bites his bottom lip again, “I really am sorry, Dave. C’mere.”

He pulls you in for a hug. Okay, this is a thing. A weird thing but… a nice thing. You can feel his heartbeat, it’s almost like a ticking clock. It’s… a little creepy, if you’re being honest. Didn’t he say he died or something like that?

“Yeah, I died. It wasn’t all that bad. Rose was with me so I wasn’t alone. I don’t know the deal with the heartbeat thing. Maybe it’s a time thing? Karkat’s doesn’t sound like mine, I know that.” he whispers to you softly, “I’m sorry.”

“Stop saying sorry so much, you sad sack of shit. It’s a little… annoying.” you laugh softly.

He lets you go and wipes at his face, shit, is he crying?

“Fuck off,” he smiles at you, “Wanna fuck with the bubbles?”

“Uh, sure man.” you shrug.

“Watch this,” he closes his eyes for a second and the room is suddenly blindingly bright.

“This is… my house.” he waves his arm around lamely. 

There’s someone sleeping in the bed, they’re breathing quietly, “That’s Karkat, he’s… yeah. He’ll be with us shortly. He likes to sleep during the day. Nocturnal species and all that.”

You look around and take in the scenery. It looks a little like your room right now, but there’s a bunch of posters and a weird… pod… thing on the floor.

“What the shit is that?” you point to it.

“Karkat’s usual bed, I’ve tried to sleep in it before but it’s not exactly comfortable for humans to sleep in.” he sits on the person-shaped lump, which stirs underneath him.

“Why do you keep saying ‘humans’ and weird shit? You’re acting like Karkat isn’t a human,” ugh, the stupid ticking is starting again. What’s the deal this time?

“Babe, you gonna lay there all day or are you gonna get up and say hi to Dave?” he shakes the person in the bed and they yank the blankets back. 

They’re… grey? And apparently have horns and claws, too.

“Dave, oh my fuck! Why did you have to come specifically to this bubble where I’m trying to relax and get some damn peace and quiet for once, you bulge-chafing nookstain!?” he sounds a LOT like Karkat, it’s almost an exact match, but this guy is… weird. He’s really fucking angry, for one.

“Who in the absolute fuck is that? And why is it so fucking bright in here?!” he rolls his eyes and the room gets dim, almost like it’s sunset.

“Aww, babe, love you too,” Dave scoops him up in his arms and kisses him. Oh, this must be…

“Karkat?” you ask and he tilts his head at you, thick black bed-head hair falls into his face and he brushes it back.

“I see, so Dave has been screwing with other timelines again.” he sits up completely and glares at Dave. You notice Karkat’s eyes are yellow where they should be white and pure red where they should be dark brown. He looks kinda like a demon, but… he’s still Karkat, right?

“Karkat, this is Dave, obviously. Dave, this is my Karkat. He’s a troll, not a human,” Dave rests his head on Karkat’s shoulder.

You hear this Karkat sigh, “Dave… we’ve been over this, you’re not supposed to fuck with the timelines of Past Daves.”

“He’s not a past Dave, he’s an alternate Dave. You’re a human in his timeline, look…” he reaches into his pocket and grabs a familiar looking picture… hey!

“Hey man, what the shit?! Did you fucking steal that off my desk?” you march over to him intending to take it, but Karkat starts actually _ growling _ at you like some fucking feral animal when you get near him.

“Babe, chill. He’s cool,” he pats Karkat’s leg, “I can’t give this to you, it could cause a paradox and doom your timeline if I give it to you now. It’s nice though, I’ll hold on to it for now, if that’s okay?”

You stare at him for a second, mostly in disbelief that his… weird Karkat stopped growling when he touched him and that he’s holding onto a picture of your Karkat for no reason.

“I’m not gonna fuckin’ jerk it to Karkat’s human face, god. Chill out, Dave.” he waves his hand at you, “I grabbed it so I can give it to you later, it’ll jog your memories when you wake up.”

Karkat looks over at you and back at the picture and then back at you, “So, are you human-dating this Karkat?” he asks.

Dave rolls his eyes, “We talked about this. You can’t just say things like ‘human-dating’ and expect to be taken seriously. And I’m pretty sure they’re pale with benefits, if you wanna put it in a quadrant.”

Karkat smiles and you’re kinda taken back by the amount of terrifying sharp teeth he has. You’re starting to this Dave has some kind of death wish or torture fetish.

“That’s solid fucking gold, holy shit. Of course alternate-me would be Pale for this you, just look at him! He’s all… soft and sad. Who wouldn’t pity the fuck out of him?” he laughs.

Dave pipes up before you get to say anything, “Before you get mad, pity is a troll thing. It’s not like the human pity at all, really. It’s a compliment, I say take it and go with it. You don’t have too much time left, so I don’t wanna hear about how mad you are at my boyfriend.”

“Is that what the ticking is?” you ask and he nods.

“It’s your time powers letting you know you’re running out of time, literally. You’ve only got about… twenty more minutes before you get dropped off in your new timeline.” he answers.

“Right, I meant to ask you about that… is that why you have the picture? So when I get dropped off in the new timeline I’ll remember getting my powers and everything?” you say.

He nods and sighs, “I’ll leave the picture next to your bed on the table, as soon as you’re done getting your memories back, put it somewhere that nobody can find. If anyone else sees it, it’ll fuck things up, probably. But like I said, I’m not sure because your timeline is all fucky.”

“Let’s just chill until you leave, c’mere.” he pats the bed and floats off to the side to give you space. Karkat also scoots back so you can have some room.

“I’m not going to fucking eat your head off, muscle-beast shit for brains. Sit the fuck down and relax,” he rolls his eyes.

“...Alright…” you walk over to them carefully and sit down on the bed, crossing your legs underneath you. 

Karkat looks you over and huffs, “Gee, Dave, you picked a winner this time, didn’t you?”

“Aww, Dave, he likes you,” Dave laughs and ruffles Karkat’s insane bed-head between his nubby horns.

“I do not!” Karkat grimaces at him, “He’s LITERALLY just a different you so of course I like him a  _ little _ bit but it’s not like that!”

“Is this the kind of thing you two always do?” you ask with a sigh.

“Yes, Dave just loves to psychologically torture me with Past Daves. Hmm, maybe you’re right Dave, this Dave is pretty fucking super…” he scoots a little closer to you and Dave narrows his eyes at you.

“Don’t even try it, I made you exist, in case you fucking forgot. I am literally your god,” Karkat chuckles.

“This is weird… you two are fucking weird,” you say because you have a feeling they’re going to go off on some long-winded tangent if you don’t stop them now.

“Wow hey, would you look at that… You’re out of time. Bye Dave, see you later,” Dave is practically floating away with his head buried in his hands.

“Strider is just embarrassed, you’re not out of time, you’ve got ten more minutes.” Karkat says loud enough that Dave can hear it.

“Am not.” Dave says floating back in your direction and plopping back down on the bed a little closer to Karkat’s side than yours.

“Whatever you say, Dave.” you laugh a little, these two are the biggest dorks you’ve met. You wonder if this is how people feel seeing you and Karkat together.

“Alright, real talk? Don’t use your powers unless you have to save people or finish a loop,” Dave rests his head on Karkat’s shoulder and Karkat leans into him. 

“Why not?” you ask.

“Loops are stable stuff, if you don’t finish them you’ll cause a paradox. You’ll just know when you need to go back but you have to say the same things or else it’s paradox time.” he answers.

“Haven’t you seen time-travel movies? The thing about time powers is you only use them when you have to or you risk fucking up really important small stuff. Ever heard of the Butterfly Effect? Think about that before you go back to… say… pick a flower or something. That flower might need to exist because in a million years, that flower might be necessary to create a whole new kind of flower, and that flower might exist for a certain kind of animal, and that certain animal might be eaten by a certain human. So when you fuck with that one tiny thing, you fuck up that human and you can kill a whole family of people because they didn’t get to eat that one animal and I-”

“Dave, you’re rambling.” Karkat bumps into him.

“Dude, shut the fuck up, I know all of that.” you roll your eyes, does he think you’re a dumbass or something?

“Oh, sorry, it’s just…” he takes a deep breath, “really fucking important that you don’t mess with too much, y’know what I’m sayin’?”

“Hey, tell me how much time you have left?” he asks.

“Two minutes… wait, how… how did I know that?” you scratch your head.

“You’re getting better at it.” he smiles at you, “I still don’t get how you got your powers before you God-Tiered but that’s the least of your worries.”

“So, when am I going to get dropped off?” you ask, one minute and forty-five seconds.

“August 8th. You’ll be waking up for school, first day of your junior year. Dirk’s probably gonna be confused because your body has been running on autopilot doing stuff you’d normally do. It helps to write things down somewhere that your autopilot-self won’t find it and mess with it.” he answers, one minute and eight seconds, “Karkat is gonna run into you at school today in the hallway just like the first time. Don’t forget to pick up his books for him and walk him to class.”

Fifty-two seconds, “Why? Is that important?” you ask.

“If you want to date him like you are now, yeah. I’ll be able to give you some pointers like I did yesterday. Just think of it as me being your time-wingman. Don’t worry about waking up tired, you’ll be fine.” he says, forty seconds.

“Jesus, this ticking thing is annoying. It’s like a digital clock in my brain.” you shake your head, thirty-two seconds.

“Try not to focus on it, dumbass. It won’t bother you unless you think about it too much. You’re like a human clock now, you’ll always know what time and day it is no matter where or when you are.” he gives you a light shove and leans away from Karkat, ten seconds.

“Guess I got ten seconds, later y’all.” you shrug and Karkat frowns a little, eight, seven, six…

“Bye Alternate-Dave,” he smiles at you, three, two…

“Later,” Dave says as he raises his hand and slaps you across the face at full force.

The last thing you hear is Karkat yelling at him and Dave muttering “Fuckin’ loops.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I debated with myself on uploading two chapters today, but the big chapter isn't ready yet and I think the next chapter would be better suited along side Chapter 12. I'm aiming for an early update on 4/13 but we'll see!
> 
> Dirk now has a playlist! https://open.spotify.com/user/nomisupernova/playlist/5WBQQjVUBWuVYAkGVddGD0
> 
> Roxy's is almost done, I just need to put the final touches on it.

“Dave! You don’t wanna be late for your first day, wake up or we’re gonna eat without you.” Dad yells up the stairs.

“Mmmgnnh, I’m up, I’m up...” you roll over in bed and grab your sunglasses from your side table. Dirk walks into the room and you peek your head out at him and he whips the curtains open. FUCK THE SUN!

“Wake up, Dave! First day, I’m not gonna wait for you. And if you don’t hurry it up, I’m eating your eggs.” he ruffles your hair and heads back out of the doorway.

“Dirk, I’m gonna kill you!!” stupid brother leaving your stupid curtains open. At least he waited until you grabbed your glasses, that’s a first. Maybe he learned that “burning searing eye-pain at seven in the morning” isn’t any fun. You slide out of bed and shove your glasses on, closing the blinds a bit to dim the room some. 

“Two more fuckin’ years… stupid stupid stupid school, stupid boring garbage, could be sittin’ around makin’ music but ‘nooooo dave, education is sooo important’ Rose said, dammit fuckin’...” you dig around in the closet and grab the first clean shirt you find, “There we go, that’s good. Shoes, shoes, shoes, where’s my mothafuckin shoes… there you are.”

You grab your favorite pair of shoes and toss them on the bed with the pile of clothes you’re changing into. 

“Need pants, where’s my pants, fuckin pants man, crazy right? Gotta wear pants if you wanna go outside they say, what if I don’t like pants? I hate pants, fuck pants.” you mumble and pick your jeans up off the floor, “Speakin of pants, why the fuck do you wear pants? Who was the first fucker that was like ‘Look here bro, look at these fuckin’ tubes of shit on my legs, they’re like a skirt but for both legs’ that fucker probably got arrested for leg witchcraft…”

“Dave, are you talking to me?” Dirk speaks up from the doorway, “You’re mumbling again.”

“Oh, nah, just thinkin’ about shit, you know how it is homie. Morning by the way,” you walk over to your bed and grab your pile of clothes from the pillow and pull your blankets back up into place. Something goes flying off the side-table and you bend over to pick it up.

“Well I’m heading downstairs, I was serious about eating your eggs if you don’t hurry up,” Dirk walks off and you turn over the little piece of paper in your hands.

“Weird… I don’t think I’ve seen you around, little guy,” you look at the picture, it’s somebody… who though? You’d recognize your own framing anywhere so it’s obvious that you took this, but you don’t know this guy. He’s short and a little chubby but he’s pretty cute… he’s  _ really _ cute, now that you think about it.

“Woah… what the fuck…” you tilt your head and turn it back over, there’s something written on the back in red ink.

_ “Done gettin’ a boner over Karkat? Get dressed already.”  _

Umm, what the fuck? Who’s Karkat?

Whatever, that’s good advice anyway. You get dressed quickly, thankfully you took a shower last night so you don’t have to take one now. You stuff the photo into your hoodie pocket along with your phone, house keys, and wallet.

Dad is waiting for you at the bottom of the stairs, plate of eggs and fork in hand, “Hurry up kid, you’ve got five minutes to eat before I’m leavin’, I got a surprise for you.”

You take the plate from him and jog off to the dining room, stuffing your face with eggs and bacon, there’s already a glass of juice waiting for you on your usual side of the table. 

“Whazzat,” you swallow, hard to talk with stuff in your mouth, “What is it?”

“Nothing too big, just this.” he slides an envelope toward you. Dirk sits in the seat next to you, leaning his chin on his hands, watching you.

“Y’all are weird,” you open up the envelope, it’s addressed to both your dad and you, you can tell because it has your name with Junior on the end and his name with Senior on the end. After you slide the papers out, you lean back in your chair and take a moment to read it.

\-----

_ Mr. David Michael Strider Senior _ and  _ Mr. David Michael Strider Junior _ ,

We are pleased to inform you that the application for Gender Reassignment Surgery was approved by the board and will be taking place any comfortable date after December 3rd, 2011. The applicant, (parent/guardian) _David Strider Sr._ , should make plans to have no less than six weeks off of _(_ _school_ _/work)_ for the patient, (name of child/ren) _David Strider Jr._ , for rest and recovery. A note from the surgeon will be provided for all filing and legal purposes.

Thank you for choosing  _ Northern Austin’s Surgical Center for Women and Children _ for this procedure, any and all questions can be faxed to…

\-----

“Dad… is this- is this real?” you turn the paper over in your hands, it’s got an official stamp and everything.

“Happy early birthday, Dave,” he smiles at you and ruffles your hair in his hands.

“When did you have time for this? Haven’t you been super busy at work?” your eggs are getting cold but you don’t really care about that right now.

“I had Roxanne help me fill out the forms and she went over all the legal bullshit. Helps to have a famous author and editor in your pocket,” he laughs a little, “But yes, it’s real and I’m going to start making arrangements for you to have late December and early January off school in addition to your break. We can talk about it more after school, just had a feeling you could use some good news today.”

“Congratulations dude,” Dirk pats your arm and takes your plate from in front of you, “Now let me steal these eggs, I’m fuckin’ beat from workin’ all night.”

“Man, fine. But I’m stealing your board for school, get me?” you gulp down the rest of your juice and tie your shoes up the rest of the way.

“I’m headin’ out, sure you don’t want that ride, Dirk?” Dad asks.

“Nah s’cool. Rox is gonna be here any minute and we got stuff to do, we’ll take Dave, hurry up before you’re late.” Dirk pulls out his phone and taps the button on the side, looks like it’s about 7:30 am, his clock is off by three minutes and thirteen seconds.

Uhh, what? How did you know that? You shake your head, weird.

“Alright, bye kids, have a good day,” Dad pauses next to you and kisses your forehead, “Love you Dave, love you Dirk.”

“Shoo, shoo, you’re gonna be late,” you wave your hand at him and he shakes his head.

He walks off and you listen to his car pull out of the driveway and off until you can’t hear it anymore.

“So… Rox is gonna be here soon, want some real breakfast?” Dirk asks.

_ “You don’t have time for that, you gotta leave now. There’s someone important you gotta meet at school. Tell him you need to talk to your gym teacher.” _

“Uh, I gotta talk to the gym teacher and let ‘em know about the… thing. They’re a new one so… you know how it is.” you grab your backpack and his skateboard from by the door.

“Alright, I’ll just bring you some hash browns and put ‘em in your locker for you, later bro,” he waves you off and starts messing with his phone.

“Later,” you grab your nice new headphones and hop on the board for the short two-block ride to the school. You live on the other side of town from your other brother, Derick. Now that you’re thinking about it, you vaguely remember Roxy bringing up that name written on the picture you found this morning. Said the kid moved not too far from Bro, maybe you’ll run into him today.

You step off your board and wave hi to Dirk’s boyfriend, Jake English. He’s a cool dude, his mom is pretty hot too so that don’t hurt. Uh, whoops, not hot… okay well she’s pretty hot, you’d have to be stupid not to notice that. His cousin and one of your good friends, Jade, is pretty cute too. 

Too bad she lives out with her dad and grandpa a couple time zones away. You’re nearly to your old locker when you run into someone and knock all of their books out of their hands. He looks… familiar.

“Oh, sorry about… that,” you stare at him for a second while he rubs his forehead where you smacked into him, “Do… do I know you?”

He starts scrambling to pick up his books but you shoo him off and pick them up for him.

“Uh…, I’m… I’m,” he has a super thick accent like he got dropped off here from Mexico yesterday.

“Here’s your books, dude,” you hand them over to him and he looks… flustered?

“Karkat. I’m uh, I’m Karkat Vantas,” he says, fiddling with his thick curly dark brown hair.

“I’m…” you space out, he’s the kid! He’s the kid from the picture!! But… you’ve never seen this kid before, so how…?

_ “Dumbass, tell him your name.” _

Right, right, “I’m Dave, Dave Strider. Sorry about that, wasn’t lookin’ where I was goin’ and I almost killed you with my fuckin’ face.”

Ugh, you… suddenly have a headache and feel like you need to throw up.

“Hey Karkat, can you… have… um, have you been here long?” uh, what?

“I just moved here over the summer break, I’m from Spain,” he says. It feels… weirdly familiar.

_ “Dude, if you’re not going to remember I swear to fuck- I’m going to come there, stop time, and kick your ass until you do.” _

_ “Remember what? And what’s the deal with this stupid voice in my head anyway?” _ you think.

_ “Fine, you’re really forcing my hand here.” _

You turn your head to talk to Karkat some more but…

Wait. WAIT.

“Who the fuck are you?” you ask the doppelganger in front of you.

“I didn’t want to do this but since you’re apparently too fuckin’ stupid to put two and two together…” he rolls his eyes and grabs the picture out of your pocket.

“Hey, that’s…” you trail off, is… he?

“Okay, LOOK. They are the same person, look! Like _literally_ all you had to do was take out the fuckin’ picture and **LOOK** at it! That’s IT, oh my god, you’re _so_ ** _DUMB!_** Gettin’ real sick of babysittin’ for you,” he jams the picture in your hands.

You look at Karkat and then back at the picture.

Oh… OH!! 

**_JESUS!_ **

_ “THERE WE GO, _ are you _ QUITE _ finished being the world’s dumbest time-traveler yet? Is the Dave I actually _ WANT _ to talk to in there? Do you have any idea how differently time moves in The Outer Ring? I’ve been staring at you for, I kid you not, **_A MONTH!_ ** I was gettin’ annoyed and I’m sorry for takin’ it out on ya, but I’m fuckin’ tired and I want to get to sleep SOMETIME this year.” Dave finishes with a huff.

“Jesus! Did it work? Am I okay?” you ask, ugh fuck, your stomach feels like it’s doing 360 spins off a tall building.

“Finally, someone who isn’t a complete dumb fuck…” he laughs, “Remember everything he just said? You should have his memories right about… now.”

“Um… yeah yeah, I- I got it, walk Karkat to class, I guess I already picked up his books for him,” you answer. Ugh, that was… unpleasant.

“Sorry for fuckin’ with ya, but I got shit to do and I can’t wait around for your autopilot-self to get things on track. This is gonna suck, but you’ll be fine.” he smirks and pulls out a… floating thing that looks like a turntable, “Later, yo.”

He blinks out for a second and Karkat starts talking again.

“Hey Dave, do you think you can help me? I’m looking for the Creative Writing classroom,” he hold out his schedule and you take it from him.

“Oh sweet, you got Ms. Harley. That’s my buddy’s mom,” you smile at him, it’s nice to see his face after what feels like forever, “You like writing?”

“It is pretty fun, yeah.” he returns your smile, “What classes do you have?”

You hold out your schedule for him and he looks it over. 

“Hey… you want me to walk you to Harley’s room?” you ask, shit he’s so cute.

“Umm sure, thank you. Is your head okay?” he brushes off his textbooks and cradles them against his chest.

“I’ll be alright,” you brush your hair out of your eyes with your hand, “C’mon, this way.”

 

* * *

 

“Hey, so… thank you for being kind enough to do this,” Karkat leans against the wall outside of Ms. Harley’s classroom. You can see Rose down the hallway talking with Kanaya and Roxy and she looks over at you. You don’t remember her being there, this must be one of those Butterfly Effect things.

“S’not a problem, we should talk some more, you seem pretty cool. You said you were from Spain?” you ask, turning your attention back to Karkat, “What’s with the name?”

He rolls his eyes, “Yes, because the first thing you should ask the foreign kid is about his dumb name. It comes from the word  _ karkinos _ which means Crab.”

You remember him explaining this so you go along with the lull of the conversation, repeating the things you said before.

“Pretty weird name, but it suits you,” you shrug, “Crabby, that’s pretty cool.”

“It’s… it’s Karkat,” he laughs, “Crabby, that’s a new one. I think I like that.”

“Hello Dave, I see you’ve met Karkat.” Rose walks toward you, her arm linked with Kanaya’s, she’s drinking out of a coffee mug, which she’s holding in her free hand. Must be some really strong nice coffee, it smells almost like paint thinner. Gross.

“Hello Rose, hey Kanaya,” Karkat waves at the two of them.

“Didn’t know y’all knew each other,” you point out, this is new. Karkat didn’t really know Rose in your old timeline.

“Karkat and I are old friends, we used to chat a lot before he had moved to America and his father even picked here because he would have at least one person he knew.” Kanaya answers, a perfect black lipstick smile creeping across her face. Shit, she still looks hot as hell. Too bad she’s a lesbian. Oh well.

“David,” Rose narrows her eyes at you, “You should really get your mumbling under control, we are standing right here and we can hear you.”

SHIT!

“Oh uh… whoopsie?” you hold up your hands in surrender.

“My my, that sure is an observation you’ve made and, while true, I think it would be better left to my actual girlfriend, do you agree, Rose?” Kanaya laughs.

“Jesus Dave, keep it in your pants,” Karkat elbows you gently.

“Y-y’all are mean…” you mumble. Dammit, you don’t remember anything like this. Hopefully this is a good thing though. You’re sure Dave would come here and tell you if you were fucking anything up.

“Dave, Karkat… you’ll have to excuse us. I believe Roxy and Dirk would like to speak with you.” Rose grabs Kanaya’s hand and tugs her away.

“Hey, I have Biology with you next class, want to sit with me?” Karkat turns his attention back to you after waving goodbye to Kanaya.

“Yeah man, that’d be sweet,” you smile at him and he smiles back. It’s… a little hard not to flirt a little bit, “Hey, give me your phone. You can have my number so we can text each other.”

He bites his lip and hands his phone over to you, “S-sure.”

“Thanks,” you say, keying in your number and saving it with a lot of hearts around your name.

“You’re kind of a dork, Dave. I’ll see you around,” he laughs softly and takes his phone back, tucking it into his pocket.

“Later Karcrab,” you slide your glasses up and give him a wink. He waves one more time and walks into Ms. Harley’s room, she waves at you when he opens it and you walk off in the direction of Roxy’s locker.

Dirk is standing there with her, a worried expression is on his face and he’s mumbling to her. He’s got a bag of McDonald’s in his hand, presumably for you.

“Hey Davey, how you been lil’ dude?” Roxy smiles at you. 

Roxy looks a bit like Rose if she had longer hair and pink and blue streaks all over the underneath of it. Roxy’s skin is also slightly darker than Rose’s, a little bit like yours, now that you think of it. Weird.

“Can’t complain much, I guess,” you shrug and Dirk looks over at you. 

He’s not wearing his sunglasses right now, they’re hooked around the neck of his t-shirt. You can see him study your face for a second and he raises an eyebrow at you.

“Got your breakfast,” he hold out the bag for you and you take it.

“Thanks bro,” you dip your hand in the bag and pull out a fresh hash brown and bite into it. Mmm, food. Warm warm food.

“Walk with me?” Dirk asks and he gestures his hand at Roxy for her to go ahead without him. He’s probably gonna ask if you’re you again and not autopilot-you.

You nod and follow along down the stairs to the locker-room. 

“So, are you… hmm, I’m not sure how to word this…” he pauses, “do red capes ring a bell?”

You swallow, “Dirk, yeah, I’m me. And yes, I can time travel. I’m good, mostly.”

He sighs deeply and wraps his arm around your shoulders, “Thank fuck, I was gettin’ tired of your other dumb self acting like I was a crazy person when I brought up anything you told me a couple months ago. Did you wake up on Derse? Your body wasn’t there when I went to check last night and I couldn’t find you in The Outer Ring. You came back a little bit ago so I’ve been lookin’ for you here.”

“Uh, what’s Derse? Are you talking about the purple room?” you ask, Dave didn’t mention any of this. Maybe this is one of those game things he talked about?

“Guess you did but maybe you didn’t know any of that. I don’t really get what Derse is for but I’m awake there right now, kinda have been since you did the thing with the passport. So hey, congrats for waking me up there.” he nudges you with his free hand and lets you go.

“Hey, one more thing?” he gets your attention again once you’re in the gym, “I wasn’t supposed to say anything but… Dad is throwing a congratulations party for you because you’re gettin’ your surgery. Feel free to bring someone.”

“Sick. Thanks, dude,” you fist bump him and take a seat on the bleachers. He walks over to sit with the seniors on the other side of the gym and you lean back to take a breath.

The teachers don’t like to start the actual gym classes until about a week after school starts so they have everyone chill out in here and you get a grade for showing up to class and they get to plan their curriculum with the other teachers. It’s pretty boring, if you’re gonna be honest. You look around and see Rose talking to someone at the door to the gym. She runs (more like power-walk, you don’t think you’ve ever seen her actually run outside of gym class) over to Dirk and they walk over to the door together.

You angle your head so you can see who’s outside the door, looks like a head of dark brown hair and… oh, looks like its Jake. That’s right, Dirk and Jake are back together in this timeline since they never had their falling-out over how Dirk was dealing with his grief. Rose turns her head back to you and quickly back to Jake. Dirk waves you over and walks over to the teacher. 

When you walk past Dirk you hear him say something about a family emergency, which has you panicking a little bit. You speed up and get to Rose, where indeed, it is Jake and Roxy is at his side. 

“The family emergency thing was a ploy, your pa is just fine, David,” Jake says and you feel the tension fall off your shoulders.

“We needed to get together to talk and it couldn’t wait until later, Jakey and I have study-hall so we figured now is as good a time as any,” Roxy adjusts her long fluffy hair so it’s not falling in her face like yours does.

A hand rests on your shoulder and your first instinct is to shove your attacker as far back as possible. Dirk lands on the floor with a “Oomph” and looks up at you over the top of his sunglasses.

“Dave, it’s not nice to push your brother around like that,” Jake says as he puts an arm out to help Dirk up.

“S-sorry… Don’t sneak up on me like that,” you say with a laugh, trying to hide how much you’re actually freaking out right now.

“Brotherly attacks notwithstanding, we have to talk, Mr. York gave me the keys to the locker room so we can talk in private,” Dirk says, tossing the keys in the air and catching them for show. You follow him and the rest of your little group down to the locker room under the gym.

“So I brought up Derse to Rose and it turned out that she is also awake there, as well as Roxy,” Dirk says, crossing his arms and sitting on the nearest bench, “As for Prospit, there’s quite a few people awake there.”

“Prospit is my moon, by the way,” Jake adds, “I haven’t been out to Derse myself but from what Dirk has said, it’s very different from Prospit.”

“Yeah, Janey and John told me that they wake up on Prospit when they head off to sleep-land,” Roxy says, leaning against the wall.

“Well so far, I’ve got a small list of everyone on Prospit and only half of them are awake. It seems the Witch of Prospit and the Sylph of Prospit aren’t awake yet, whatever that means. I’ve assumed that they’re talking about Jake’s cousin Jade and Rose’s girlfriend Kanaya,” Dirk pulls out an actual  [ fucking list from his pocket. ](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tYToJLzYHGkZ9Ej85dSgX074nhi8bi6pQavm9VQrbVc/edit?usp=sharing)

You look it over for a minute, seems exactly half of you are awake and the other half is asleep. A good chunk of the asleep people don’t have names filled out, you’re assuming because they’re strangers or you just haven’t met them yet. You’re also a little surprised to see Karkat is on the list and that he’s awake, apparently.

“Who are these two?” you ask, gesturing toward the two names you don’t recognize on the list.

“Tavros is on Prospit with me, he’s not so bad once you get him to come out of his shell a bit,” Jake answers.

“And as for the girl, Nepeta, she’s on Derse but I haven’t spoken with her much, unfortunately. I was hoping to get answers from her, but she’s always off in the bubbles or over on Prospit.” Dirk sighs and takes the list from your hands.

“Dave, whatever you did in June it woke most of us up. Dirk, Roxy and I hardly see your dreamself, it looks as if you just leave for several weeks at a time and randomly show back up whenever. I’ve been trying to look into it but…” Rose bites her thumb, “It’s nothing, go on.”

“I just wanted to let everyone know that no, you’re not insane. Derse and Prospit are indeed very real. Any questions?” Dirk asks and looks around at your little rag-tag group.

“Rose, I’ve seen you sleepwalking, you been feeling okay?” Dirk turns to look at Rose, who’s busy pretending she didn’t hear him.

“Hmm,” she hums.

“Rosey? If something’s wrong, you can tell us,” Roxy reaches forward to touch Rose’s face, but Rose takes a step back.

“It’s nothing to concern yourselves with,” Rose says, pulling out her phone and texting furiously on it.

You see Dirk roll his eyes and look over at Jake, “Jake, since you’re the only one nearby geographically who’s on Prospit, I’m gonna have you keep tabs on Jane, John, Karkat, Tavros, and Jade’s dream-selves. That cool?”

“Of course, love,” he answers and leans forward to plant a kiss on Dirk’s forehead. Gross.

“Gross, dude,” you say and stick your tongue out and fake gag at them. Dirk raises a middle finger at you.

“So, seems that’s everything. Class is almost over, reconvene when Dave’s dreamself shows up again?” Dirk says and everyone nods, except Rose, who’s still busy texting away.

“Rose, who’re you talkin’ to?” you take a step toward her and she pockets her phone quickly.

“It’s nothing to concern yourselves with,” she repeats herself.

“Whatever Rose,” Roxy gives her a playful shove, “Alright, see you all tonight?”

Dirk nods at her and leads your group back out of the locker room. You silently wonder if Rose is going to be okay, she hasn’t spoken with you much and that’s a little concerning. She tells you everything, doesn’t she?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if the legal paper isn't realistic! I couldn't find anything for reference but I'm hoping that it will do. lol


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG HI! Happy 413! The next chapter isn't _quite ready yet_ and still needs a small bit of work, but it will be up on 4/17! Then after that, updates will continue on the "Every two weeks on Tuesday" schedule. Roxy's playlist isn't done yet either, but I'm hoping to have that done by 4/17.
> 
> Content Warnings: Depictions of panic attacks

When you walk into the Biology room, Karkat is waving you over to where he and Kanaya are sitting. You wave back and walk over to him then you take a seat in the desk next to him.

“Hey, Dave,” he greets you with a slight smile on his face.

“Hey, sweet. You saved a spot for me,” you reply.

Kanaya is sitting in the desk directly behind Karkat and some girl you don’t recognize is sitting where you would’ve normally sat in your old timeline, right in front of Karkat. She turns her head and catches your eye so you smile and wave at her.

“Hey, do I… know you?” she asks, tilting her head slightly. She has a weird accent, you think. She definitely isn’t from around here.

“Don’t think so, no. I’m Dave, by the way, Dave Strider,” you nod your head toward her and she gets a look on her face.

“I’m Nepeta Leijon, I just moved here from Chicago with my mom,” she smiles at you and you can see her eye Karkat slightly before turning her attention back to you.

“Nice to meet you, Nepeta. What is Chicago like?” Karkat asks. You think you recognize her name… Wait, her name was on the list. This must be that girl Dirk said he was trying to talk to.

“Prrrretty borrrring,” she rolls her r’s dramatically, “And cold.”

“Then I suppose you will like it here,” Kanaya adds, “It does indeed stay quite warm here nearly all year.”

The teacher walks in and calls attention to class so Nepeta promises that you’ll talk more later.

It’s a fairly short class, it’s mostly spent going over what you’ll be doing for the semester, most of which isn’t difficult for you or you’ve already done in your old timeline. You mostly zone out and think about how you’re going to ask Karkat to come to your house for your “surprise” party.

It’s sorta like a date, but not really since you’re not sure you two are anywhere near close enough to have anything count as a date in this timeline. Maybe you’ll just word it as hanging out after school? Would he get mad if you didn’t mention the party or would he get the wrong idea and think you’re trying to ask him on a date, which by all intents and purposes, is the same day you met him? That would be pretty weird, yeah.

You’re snapped out of your thoughts by Kanaya lightly tapping your arm to get your attention.

“You are lucky Karkat had gotten up a moment ago, he might have heard you mumbling about your date idea,” she whispers with a soft smile on her face, “He would love to come but, if you would like, I can ask him to join myself and Rose.”

“O-oh, yeah you… you can do that,” you whisper back quietly as Karkat takes his seat again.

“ _¿Me he perdido de algo?_ ” he says to Kanaya who shakes her head at him.

“Nothing really, I was just discussing with David what his plans were after school. Would you care to accompany Rose and I to his house? His father is having a small get-together and I think Rose and David would love if you would join me,” she asks, receiving an eye roll from Karkat in return.

“ _¿Es esta otra de tus ideas de citas, Kanaya?_ ” he gives her a pointed look.

“Nothing like that, I assure you,” she smiles.

“Fine, I’ll come,” he sighs and smiles over at you.

You feel like you’ve missed something, but it doesn’t seem too important so you decide to zone back out, now thinking about what Rose’s problem is. Dave mentioned something about her being a “Blind Seer” whatever that means, but it might have something to do with her being cagey recently, so maybe you should think a little more about that hint. Class ends while you’re thinking about all the possible ways a “Seer” could be blind that aren’t literal, since she very clearly isn’t blind.

“Hey Dave, would you like to meet at your locker after school?” Karkat asks while gathering up his things.

He follows you into the hallway, “Sure, you gonna walk with me there and meet up with Kanaya or…?”

He nods and quickly adds, “I mean, if that’s okay with you?”

“Yeah man, ‘course it’s fine. You don’t have to worry about imposin’ on me,” you shrug, “I’d love it if you came.”

Don’t think about that wording, don’t think about that wording, don’t think about that wording.

“See you then?” he says, sounding slightly unsure.

“See ya then, Karkat,” you wave at him, you are absolutely not thinking about that wording.

Ugh.

 

* * *

 

You get through the rest of the day easily, you don’t have any classes with the rest of your dysfunctional little family and you mostly just zone out and think about what’s going to happen after you sleep tonight. Maybe this is when you get back to your normal life. At least Bro isn’t around to beat the shit out of you, or worse, so you actually are pretty okay with the thought of going home after school. Hell, you’re even looking forward to it.

When you get to your locker, Karkat is indeed waiting for you, cell phone pressed to his ear. He waves at you and continues talking to the person on the other end in Spanish. You decide to let him finish up and put your things away and grab Dirk’s skateboard for him.

“Sorry, that was my father. I wanted to let him know I was going to hang out with a friend,” he apologizes, “He said it was fine as long as I’m home before too late.”

“Well my dad is pretty cool so he won’t keep you hostage or anything,” you assure him and he chuckles at you.

“You know what I meant,” he smiles brightly, “So, ready to go then?”

“Yep, come on, it’s on the east side of town.” You tell him and start walking to the nearest exit to head home.

Dirk isn’t here like he usually would be so you assume he’s with Roxy or that he’s already home. Karkat is fiddling with the ends of his hair while you walk, something you’ve noticed means he’s nervous.

“So Karkat, tell me a little more about yourself,” you ask him, hoping to dissolve some of his nervousness.

“Twenty questions time already?” he smiles, pushing his curls back into place. “Anything specific, perhaps?”

“Tell me about your hobbies,” you know some of his hobbies, but you never had time to learn them all.

“Well, I like movies. It’s a little embarrassing but… I like romantic comedy movies,” he goes back to messing with his hair, “That’s probably stupid.”

“It’s not stupid, that’s actually kinda cute,” you assure him and his cheeks get a little darker, success. “Anything else?”

“I like to write, as I’m sure you have figured out by now. I used to write html coding for websites with a friend from Spain, but I’m not really as good as he is.” He buries his face in his hands, “I’m boring, I know.”

“Nah dog, you doubt yourself too much. I couldn’t do any html coding if I wanted to, so the fact that you can do any is pretty fucking super to me.” You bump his shoulder a little with yours and he smiles at you, “You can ask me something if you wanna.”

“You are… bisexual, right? I–I don’t mean to be presumptuous!” He adds quickly, wincing slightly at the volume of his voice, “Sorry, that’s probably really personal.”

“Dog, if you were bein’ a dick, I’d tell you. And yeah I am, you’ve got a pretty good bi-fi.” You laugh at your own stupid joke. It apparently doesn’t pass the language barrier because the next thing he asks is, “What is a Bi-Fi?”

“Well, it’s like… hmm…” You think for a second, “It’s like when you’ve got a good eye for spotting bisexuals. There’s the gaydar for gay people, there’s bi-fi for bisexuals, I think there’s one for pansexuals but I don’t know it.”

“Oh, I get it! It’s a pun on wi-fi.” He clasps his hands together, “You’re a dork!”

“Yeah, but I’m damn proud of it.” You flip your hair dramatically, “Everyone loves a hot nerd.”

He makes a noise of disbelief at you and rolls his eyes. “Whatever helps you sleep at night.” It’s actually kind of endearing how much attitude he has. He’s more like the alien Karkat that Dave is dating than you’d realized.

“Well, here’s my house. I’m gonna act surprised when I head in, don’t be shocked if everyone jumps out from behind the furniture,” you warn him and wave at the front yard.

“It’s very nice,” is all he says and heads in with you.

You feign shock when everyone jumps out, well… most everyone. Roxanne is busy talking to a woman you don’t recognize but she does raise her can of soda at you and smile. Karkat smiles and waves at Kanaya, who had been hiding with Rose and Dirk behind the couch. Your dad comes over and squeezes you in a tight hug.

“Dirk spilled, didn’t he?” Dad asks and you nod.

“Can’t trust that boy with a secret, I swear.” He laughs, “Is this a new friend?”

“Oh, Karkat, this is my dad. Dad, this is Karkat.” Now _here’s_ a conversation you never thought you’d have.

“Nice to meet you Karkat,” your dad smiles at Karkat, “I’m Dad.”

“Ugh…” you recoil and your dad laughs.

“Come on, what kind of dad would I be if I didn’t bust out the classic dad jokes once in a while?” Dad nudges you, “We’re havin’ barbecue, the other guests should be here soon. Can you get the door when they get here?”

He turns to Karkat, “It was lovely meetin’ ya Karkat, I’ve gotta start cookin’ though. Later y’all.” He walks off to the kitchen, past the mystery guest and into the backyard.

“Hey, Karkat, can you… give me a sec?” you look around and spot Dirk chatting with Rose.

“Okay, yeah. I’ll go talk to Kanaya,” he squeezes your shoulder and walks over to her.

“Hey, Dave,” Dirk waves at you.

“Hey, who’s… that?” you point toward the tall blonde lady in the kitchen.

“Oh, that’s… I _think_ Roxy and Rose’s older sister? She might be an aunt though, I’m not sure,” he shrugs, “Why?”

“I dunno, she just looked familiar,” you shrug, “I’ve never heard of Rox and Rose havin’ a sister.”

“She’s _estranged_ ,” he says with extra emphasis. “She apparently bailed on the family when Roxy and me were real little.”

“If she’s _estranged_ , why’s she here now?” Weird timing for an estranged family member to be showing up.

“Dunno, guess she’s got business or somethin’ here, you’d have to ask Roxanne for details.” He sips his can of orange soda casually, “Guess her name is Rosana or something like that, or at least that’s what I overheard Roxanne call her.”

“Jesus, can the Lalonde family have any names that aren’t piss-poor versions of Rose and Roxy?” you joke and he smirks.

“Guess not,” he answers.

The doorbell rings and you head over to let whoever it is inside. What you’re not expecting is the person at the door to be someone you know.

“Hello Dave,” Bro says flatly as he looms above you. Fuck. Fuck Fuck FUCK. You stumble backward and he looks at you, tilting his head inquisitively. “Dave?”

No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, no. No, no, NO!!

Your knees suddenly stop working. You collapse onto the ground and dig your hands into your hair, covering your ears. Something is happening to you. Your heart is racing, and you feel the beginnings of tears springing to the corners of your eyes.

“Dave?? Dave, what’s wrong?” a voice you vaguely recognize calls out to you.

“Ayuda, Dave está roto! Kanaya! Rose!” you squeeze your eyes shut. Shit, if only you knew how to get your powers to work when you want them to.

“David!!” it’s your dad’s voice this time, “Dave, what’s wrong?”

“I didn’t do anything,” you hear Bro’s voice, fuck. It sparks something like pure panic in your chest, it’s heavy and constricting and you would do anything to make it stop. Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop! How do you make it stop?

“Go in the kitchen with Rosana,” Dad hisses at Bro. “Come on buddy, I got you.” He scoops you up in his arms and carries you off, you’re not sure where because your eyes are still shut.

Through the thudding of your heart in your ears, you hear a door open and close. “Dave, you’re safe. Nobody would let you get hurt here. Nobody is going to hurt you.”

Dad sets you down on what feels like a bed but cradles your head in his lap, “You’re okay, you’re okay…” he soothes you and pets your hair.

You want to say something but you’re not sure how to explain everything to him, nor do you know if that would doom your timeline. You don’t want to be the cause of killing everyone because you couldn’t keep quiet due to your own weakness. You take a deep shuddering breath, trying to steady your voice before you speak.

“Did Karkat see?” you choke out.

You hear him laugh slightly, “Yeah… I don’t think he cares though. He was probably more worried than anyone else in the room.”

“Shit,” you say and rub at your eyes.

“You okay, buddy?” he asks and you’re not sure how to answer.

Someone knocks very lightly on the door. “It’s me, Dad,” Dirk’s voice says, “Can I come in?”

“Can Dirk come in or would you like it to be just me and you?” Dad asks you.

“Dirk,” is all you manage to say.

“Come on in, Dirk.” he says softly.

“You okay, lil bro?” You turn your head and open your eyes, Dirk is kneeling by you, his glasses aren’t in sight, which means he took them off for you so you can see his eyes.

“I don’t know,” you answer, your voice is steady again. “I don’t know what that was.”

“Nobody is mad at you, Dave. We’re just worried, I promise,” he strokes your hair softly, “Did Bro scare you? I didn’t know he was coming or I would’ve warned you.”

You nod and Dad looks upset, “I’m sorry, I didn’t think he would freak you out. He wanted to see you and I thought it would be okay.”

He wanted to see you?

“Why…” you clear your throat, “Why did he want to see me?”

“I think it’s best that he and Rosana tell you together,” Dad rubs your head again as he talks, “It’s not my place to tell you.”

“Roxy’s sister?” Dirk asks, Dad nods in return.

“Are you okay or do you need a minute?” Dad says, “I can go tell everyone you’ll be out whenever you’re ready.”

“I’m… I’ll be okay, just…” you grab Dad’s hand, “stay with me?”

He doesn’t judge you for your childish request, he simply nods and lets you sit up. You take a few more deep breaths and steel yourself to go sit in front of your rapist and the woman who abandoned you at birth.

Dad holds your shoulder the whole way back downstairs from his bedroom and into the kitchen where Rosana and Derick are sitting. Karkat is sitting on the couch with a worried looking Kanaya and Rose. They nod at you when you walk past but they don’t get up to talk.

Bro looks at you, his glasses are on the table. It’s… almost weird to see him in this context, no puppets or weirdly sexual shit around him. He just looks like another member of your family. The woman, Rosana, is holding his hand. Really fuckin’ weird.

“Dave, this is Rosana, she’s...” Dad trails off.

“I’m your mother,” she finishes. Her voice is kind of sing-songy like Roxy’s but the tone is borderline patronizing.

“I wasn’t sure when to tell you this but, Dave…” Dad sits in the chair across from Rosana and gestures for you to take the one next to him, so you do.

“I’m not your biological father. Dirk isn’t your brother, he’s your uncle. Derick and Rosana are your biological parents.” He looks across the way to your Bro and the woman who is apparently your mom, she squeezes Bro’s hand tightly, which he doesn’t return.

“We weren’t ready for you, Dave,” she says, “We still aren’t but that doesn’t mean that I… that _we_ don’t love you.”

“Nothing has to change, we just felt that now was the best time to let you know while Rosana is still in town,” your dad says.

You think about it for a moment. It’s… a little overwhelming. You see Rosana look over at Derick’s face and hear her kick him under the table. He looks over at her and an honest to god look of annoyance crosses his face.

“This is stupid,” he mumbles to her. “Stop playing like you ever gave a shit about anyone but yourself.”

“Like you’re any better, Derick,” she says pointedly, “We’re talking about Dave, not you.”

“Why?” you ask.

“Why what, Dave?” Rosana asks, her voice dripping with the same fake sweetness Rose uses when she’s playing at condescending.

“Why did you have me if you weren’t ready for me? Couldn’t you both’ve just kept it in your fucking pants?” You tilt back in your chair, Dad squeezes your hand gently.

“It’s not like that, Dave. We… we were stupid teenagers and…” she pauses, “It was a mistake, but you have a real family. One we couldn’t have given you, you should be grateful.”

“Oh, I should be _grateful,_ is it?” you clench your teeth, “Grateful for what? Nobody asks to be born, they shouldn’t have to thank people for making them!”

“Alright, alright, everyone relax,” Dad stands up. “I won’t have you saying things like that to my son.”

“He’s not even your son, really. Legally, sure, but he’s mine when it comes down to flesh and blood,” Bro says. “I’ll talk to him however I please and do whatever I want with him.”

“I’m not yours and I’m nothing like you.” You stand up so fast that the chair clatters. “And I’ll never be like you, **ever.** And I _sure as hell_ don’t belong to you. People aren’t fucking puppets you can just sell and trade for whatever you want!”

He locks eyes with you, there’s a burning intensity behind his eyes like he used to get after he’d kick your ass in a strife. Not happening anymore, if you can help it.

“Dave,” Dad rests his hand on your shoulder, “sit, please.”

Bro looks away from you and over to your dad, so you sit back down. Dad slides a legal looking paper out of a binder on the table and hands it across the table to Rosana.

“Sign it,” he demands.

“And what if I don’t?” she asks, sitting back with a smug smile on her face.

“Then I’ll sue you the ever loving fuck out of you. Now, sign it.”

She holds the pen in her hand for a moment, reading over the paper before quickly signing it and sliding it over to Derick, who signs it quickly without even reading it.

“What’s that for?” you ask. Bro shoves it across the table at you.

“Legal stuff, they’ve signed over any legal say they may have over you while you’re in the hospital. It was the final loophole in your surgery and your adoption.” Dad answers, tucking the paper away, “We kept the loophole in for emergencies.”

Well that explains why Bro got you after Dad died. You guess Rosana was still missing-in-action when that legal proceeding happened, you consider yourself only slightly lucky because she seems the type to drop you off on some corner somewhere and forget about you. Dad waves you off, this means you can leave and you take your opening.

You stand up and walk out of the kitchen, only to run into Karkat.

“¿Está todo bien aquí?” he says and corrects himself, “Is everything alright here?”

“M’Fine, sorry for… freaking you out earlier,” you actually feel a little better having confronted Bro, even if it wasn’t for the thing you wanted to yell at him for.

“It’s okay, I’m not mad or anything,” he says, “I was worried about you.”

“I’m fine, I just… I think I need some air,” you smile lopsidedly at him. “You wanna come outside with me?”

“Yes of course,” he answers and you lead him into the backyard. The pool is uncovered and ready for a swim so you kick off your shoes, roll up your jeans, and stick your feet in. Karkat sits cross-legged next to you, leaving a good bit of space between yourselves. You wish he’d sit closer.

“So…” he starts and trails off.

“Hmm…” you hum and kick the water gently, it makes a small wave and splashes at the side of the pool.

“More questions?” he asks, folding his hands in his lap.

“Sure, shoot,” you answer.

“I take it you did not know about your… your biological father.” It’s more of a statement than a question, but you’ll take it.

“I did know, but only recently,” you lay back on the warm cement and look at the clouds, “Still… Guess I didn’t really want to see him in front of me anymore.”

“I’m sorry,” he says, “Are you and he not close?”

“Understatement of the mother fucking year, Karkat,” you laugh hollowly, “He fucking stabbed me when I was a kid, I didn’t know my real dad would even let him in the house anymore.”

“Why the fuck did he stab you?” he asks after a moment or two of silence.

“It’s a long story, you sure you wanna hear that? You’ll be here all night,” you rest your arm against your forehead.

“I have all night and you don’t have anywhere to be,” he says.

“So, I was five…” you start.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translation notes:
> 
> ¿Me he perdido de algo?= Have I missed something?
> 
> ¿Es esta otra de tus ideas de citas, Kanaya? = Is this another one of your date ideas, Kanaya?
> 
> Ayuda, Dave está roto! = Help! Dave is broken! (lol)
> 
> ¿Está todo bien aquí? = Is everything alright here?


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Flashback chapter is here!
> 
> the next update is going to be a little late! i've been super busy writing a new long-fic with [@cyanideSweetheart](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cyanidesweetheart) so the next update won't be until May 8th. Still though, I was able to set aside time to get this update out on time. I hope you like it!
> 
> CW: Stabbing, mind control, homophobic language.
> 
> Every horizontal line is a time skip.

“Dirk, come on, Derick is waiting for us,” Dad says, shifting you in his arms.

“But Dad, I don’t wanna go sit around for an hour in there!! School is so dumb!” Dirk huffs and pulls at his tie. Of course it’s stupidly bright orange, he picked it out himself.

“Well, I’ll let you bring a toy, but it has to be a quiet one, okay?” Dad reasons and Dirk crosses his arms.

“Fine, I’ll take Sawtooth.” He runs off toward the stairs and you hear him stomping around and his toys hitting the ground.

“You still awake, Dave?” Dad asks, straightening out your hair and tucking it behind your ear.

“Yeah, I’m sleepy.” You rub your eyes, you just woke up from your afternoon nap. 

You, Dad, and Dirk all got tickets for Derick’s graduation so you have to get there soon if you don’t want to be late. You don’t really care, if you’re honest. You just want to sit with Dad, play with your Bro, and maybe nap some more on the way there.

“Sorry for interrupting your nap but we’ve got to head over there now if we want to catch Derick before it starts,” he smiles softly at you and slides your glasses onto your nose, “Make sure you don’t take these off, your doctor said we need to make sure your eyes don’t get hurt by the sun.”

“I know, Dad.” You rest your head on his shoulder and Dirk rounds the corner, toy in hand.

“Ready to go?” he asks and Dirk nods, jogging up and catching Dad’s hand in his. “Glasses on, Dirk.” He pats Dirk’s head and Dirk slides his dorky sunglasses onto his face, they’re a bit too big but Dad said he’s having a “growth spout” so he’ll grow into them.

The car ride isn’t too long, but the school is crowded with people shuffling into the big building in the back. Dad said it’s called an “aditorium” and that’s where you’ll be, there’s soft seats so your back doesn’t get hurt from sitting still for so long.

“It’s  _ Auditorium, _ Dave,” Dad taps your nose, “You’re mumbling again.”

“Au-di-tor-ee-um?” you say and he laughs.

“Dork,” Dirk says and smacks your shoe with his free hand that isn’t clinging to your dad’s leg.

“No hitting! Dad said hitting is mean.” You wave your shoe at him.

“That’s right, Dave. Dirk, no hitting. We don’t hit, okay?” he says and Dirk hums at him. You can see Derick from here and he’s waving his arm in the air.

Derick is really tall, Dad said you’ll be as tall as him when you’re older. You don’t know if you’ll be nearly as tall as your older bro, _ maybe, _ if you’re lucky.

“Hey Dad, hey kids.” Derick comes over and hugs your dad on the side that isn’t holding you and he reaches for you, “C’mere, Dave.”

“Bro!” you smile and practically leap into his arms. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too, kiddo. Don’t worry, I’ll be back home tonight for good, sound okay?” He jiggles you slightly and brushes your hair back like Dad does.

“Yeah, we can play blocks and I can show you the new toy Dirk made me.” You snuggle into his shoulder, you really did miss him a lot.

“You missed me too, right?” Dirk says, pulling Derick’s arm.

“Of course I did, Dirk. Did you hear that there’s a meteor shower tonight?” Bro asks Dirk, patting his hair into place.

Dirk nods and rests his head on Derick’s side. “Want to watch it with me, Bro? Pleaseeeee?” 

“We can all go, if you want,” Dad says, picking Dirk up so you’re all eye to eye. “How’ve you been, Derick?”

“So, so, I guess. School was a fu– I mean, it was a breeze.” You almost heard him say a naughty word, Dad says you shouldn’t say those words because they’re for big kids.

“Have you seen… you know…?” Dad asks, trailing off.

“No, not since Dave was little,” Derick’s shoulders droop a little, “It’s fine, she’s missing out. It’s not a big deal, he’s happier with you than he would’ve been with us, anyway.”

“Yeah, it’s been… nice having two little sets of feet running around,” Dad says and you want to space out but Derick tightens his arms around you when you try to wiggle away.

“Talk about it later? Little ears and all that…” He tilts his head toward you.

Dad nods and Dirk sticks his tongue out at you, whatever. You like Bro, he’s nice like Dad but he still has the energy to play with you. Dirk doesn’t like Bro because they “like the same things and it’s annoying” or at least that’s what Dirk said. Dirk is a dummy.

“Want to go see the auditorium?” Derick asks you and you nod fiercely. He returns your enthusiasm with a chuckle. Derick lets you up onto his shoulders so you can see over everyone’s head, you feel like the tallest kid in the whole world.

“I’ll be up there, make sure you cheer extra loud for me so I’ll know where you are, okay?” He pats your leg and points toward the big stage in the front.

It’s mostly empty, there’s only a few people in here. You see Rose’s mom and wave at her, you didn’t know Rose was coming. Rose’s mom walks over to you and Derick, she’s got a look on her face like Dirk gets when you tell him you’ve been playing with his toys instead of yours.

“Derick,” she says.

“Hey… Roxanne…” he says and sticks his hand out to her.

“I see you have the baby, I assume David isn’t far behind?” she crosses her arms and leans like Rose does when she’s reading in the hallway on the way to lunch.

“M’not a baby,” you say and do your best pout. “I’m five now.”

“You’ll always be a baby to me, Di– sweetheart.” he smiles up at you and looks back at Derick, “Dave is the name he picked, right? I don’t want to get it wrong, you know.”

You hear Derick sigh, “Yes, it’s Dave. Please don’t say the old one anymore, he gets mad.”

“Right, sorry about that Dave,” she reaches for you but Derick clings to your legs.

“I’m spending time with him, you can see him later, Rox,” he says a little coldly, “You see him more than I do.”

She huffs, “Well, you would see him more often but you–”

“It was for the best, Roxanne. You’re well aware of this fact. Impressionable young ears,” he says and you start to space out, staring at Rose sitting with Roxy. You want to go over and play but Dad said you have to keep your clothes clean because you’re going out to dinner after.

“–still with me, Dave?” You zone back in and Derick lets you off his shoulders and sits you down in the chair next to Dad and Dirk, you didn’t even notice them walk in.

“Mmmhmm,” you yawn, “I’m sleepy, Bro.”

“You can nap tonight, okay? I want to see you tonight. I’ll let you get extra ice cream if you stay awake,” Derick bargains and your dad huffs.

“If he stays up all night from that sugar, you’re staying up with him,” Dad says and you lean on his side.

“Fine, after the meteor shower,” Bro leans in and kisses Dirk’s forehead and kisses yours too, “Love you, kid. Thanks for coming even though I know adult stuff is super boring.”

“Hurry up, five minutes,” Dad waves his hand at Bro.

“Hurry Bro, you don’t want to be late.” You give him a big kiss on the cheek and he walks off with a wave.

Rose, Roxy, and their mom are in the row in front of you. Rose is reading one of her big kid books and Roxy is scribbling in a notebook, looks like she’s writing something. You tap Rose’s shoulder and she touches your hand softly.

“Later, Dave,” she whispers, “You need go see the meteors with Derick.”

You don’t know how she knows about that since she just sat back down and wasn’t here to hear it. Whatever. You space out and listen to the tall man at the podium call names. You listen closely for your last name.

“Spears, Joanna,” he says and you hear a family cheer softly a few rows back. “Strider, Derick.”

You and Dirk stand up and start cheering as loud as you can, Dad and Roxanne also clap loudly. Derick looks a little embarrassed but he whistles and waves, pumping his fist in the air when he takes the roll of paper–Dad said it was a diploma–and walks off stage to join a big group of people on the other half of the auditorium.

“Good job, kids,” Dad says, and rubs your heads.

“He whistled at me!” You jump up and down in your seat.

“He sure did.” Dad smiles at you. “Almost done, just gotta get through everyone else. You can play with your toys.”

You slide closer to Dad so you can trade toys with Dirk, his wooden robot toy he made with Derick seems more fun than your ninja guys.

“You’re letting me play with the ninjas?” he asks.

“I want the robot.” You hold your empty hand out and he hands it over. “Don’t lose any pieces.”

“I won’t,” he promises. “Be nice to Sawtooth.”

“Okay,” you sit back in your seat and play with Sawtooth. Derick made it a long time ago and sanded it down recently so Dirk could have it; Dirk and you painted it together last week.

“Thank you all for joining us tonight. Class of 2000, are you ready?” the man at the podium says and Dad pokes your side.

“Watch this,” he says and points at the big group of people Derick’s age in big blue and orange dresses. You watch them and tilt your head, then they all throw their hats in the air.

“Wow!” you hear Dirk say and he leans on Roxy’s seat, “Look, Roxy!!”

“Cool!!” She stands up and gets Rose’s attention.

“One of them is going to get hit in the face,” Rose says and you hear someone from the group say “Ow!” and then a naughty word. Roxy laughs. “Told you.”

You’re still staring at them long after they’ve all fallen, you’re looking for Derick so you can give him a big hug. As you scan the crowd, orange sleeves tighten around you and lift you into the air. You make a surprised noise and kick your feet around, trying to get free.

“Were you lookin’ for me, buddy?” It’s Derick’s voice.

“You scared me!” You laugh and he snuggles you into his chest.

“I heard you yelling for me.” He smiles brightly. “You’re awesome, thank you. You really made my day.”

You don’t really know what to say so you just hug him tighter. He seems to take this as your answer and holds onto you while he talks to your dad. You love Dirk because he’s closer to you in age, but Derick is really cool too. He’s kinda like a second dad to you. It’s nice that he’s going to be around more now because he’s done with school. You can go to the park with him and go swimming and he can walk you to school when you start your first day of kindergarten in August. You’re really excited.

“Hey Dave, I gotta go talk to Roxanne real quick, wanna go with Dad or do you wanna ride with me to the restaurant?” he asks you and pinches your cheek slightly.

“Can I, Dad?” you turn towards him and hold your hands together like you’ve seen Dirk do when he wants something badly.

“Got a car seat?” your dad asks Derick.

“‘Course I do,” your Bro answers. “That a yes?”

“Sure, I’ll buckle him in, go talk to Rox,” Dad says, taking you from Bro’s arms and setting you down so you can walk next to him.“Come on, Dave, Dirk.”

You follow Dad outside and over to Derick’s car, it’s small and painted orange with black stripes on the side of it. Dad lifts you into the back of it and buckles you into the booster-seat, you’re not tall enough to ride without one yet like Dirk is.

“Where is that kid?” Dad says to nobody and checks his phone. “Dirk, hop up in there, I gotta make a quick phone call.”

Dirk hops up next to you and your dad closes the door and leans against it.

“Bro likes you more than me,” Dirk says with a little bit of jealousy, “Not fair.”

“You’re the one who’s a butt to him,” you retaliate and hand him Sawtooth. “Gimme my ninja.”

“He’s a nerd.” He sticks his tongue out at you and slides his glasses up onto his head. “Maybe that’s why he likes you, ‘cuz you’re a nerd.”

He drops your ninja guy into your lap and you fiddle with it for a little bit until you see Derick walk up with his keys in hand. He talks to Dad for a little bit and Dirk leans onto your legs.

“You’re heavy.” You wiggle your legs around and he lifts off you and pinches your arm.

“You’re dumb.” He grabs your glasses and puts them on his face. “You always get cool stuff.”

“Gimme my glasses Dirk!” you try to shimmy over to him but you’re buckled in and your hands are too small and weak to press the buttons at the same time.

“No, they’re mine now. Nerds get dumb nerd glasses,” he slides farther away.

“Dad!” you yell and Dirk jumps when the car door opens.

“Dirk,” Dad sighs, “Are you being a lil’ butt?”

“No!” He crosses his arms. “Dave gave them to me.”

“Did not! Did not!” you chant and kick your legs.

Derick gets down to Dirk’s level and slides his glasses off, the smile disappears from his face and he looks dead serious, the same way he looks when he catches you messing with his woodworking stuff in his room.

“Dirk Strider,” he says in an even and cold voice, “Are you being rude?”

“Derick…” your dad puts his hand on your Bro’s shoulder but he shakes it off.

“Dirk.” Bro lifts his eyebrows. “Give David back his glasses and apologize. Now.”

Dirk stiffens and sits your glasses back in your lap, taking his own and sliding them onto his face. “Sorry, Dave.”

“Now…” Derick narrows his eyes, “Are you going to do that again?”

“No, sir,” Dirk says, and he leaps out of the car to run and hide behind your dad’s legs.

“Did he pinch you?” Bro looks at you. You hate when he gets like this, it’s a little creepy. He’s always been kind of a weird guy, but he gets almost  _ mean _ when he’s protecting you or something he cares about. 

Dirk looks at you with scared eyes and, you hate lying, but you do. “No.”

“Okay,” he says and exhales, his face softening back into a smile.

“Derick, you’re too rough with them,” your dad whispers.

“I’m their brother, not their dad,” he shrugs and your dad sighs.

“I’m… aware.” He rubs Dirk’s head.

“So!” Bro says, a little too cheerily, “Dinner?”

“Yeah, dinner. See you there, boys.” He leans into the backseat and kisses your forehead. “Have fun with Derick, kiddo.”

“I will,” you say, and try not to think about how scary Bro looked when he was mad at Dirk.

Maybe Dirk was right, maybe you are Bro’s favorite. It makes you kinda glad because you don’t want him to look like that at you ever. You like him a lot better when he’s playing with you and having a good time.

Bro gets into the car after making sure you’re buckled in right and turns on the radio. “Snoop Dogg?” he asks.

“Snoop Dogg!” you cheer, and he turns it up louder.

After you get to the restaurant, Derick carries you inside and you see Dad sitting with Dirk at a booth towards the back.

“Can I go see Dirk?” you ask.

“Okay but, no running, you’ll skin your knee,” he sets you down and pats you on the back.

“Dirk!” You aren’t running, you’re just walking fast, “We listened to Snoop Dogg!”

“Did you?” Dad asks and scoots over so you can sit next to him, you manage to get your legs over the edge without help and plop into your seat.

“Yeah! We listened to Snoop Dogg and Eminem and a bunch of rappers!” You bounce up and down. “I wanna make music like that!”

“Maybe we’ll buy you a little mixer, you can pick it out. How does that sound?” Dad says and smiles at you.

“Me too?” Dirk says and Dad nods, “Awesome.”

“Hey, sorry, a bunch of kids from my class are here and…” Derick slides into the seat next to Dirk and trails off. “Anyway, whatcha want, Dave?”

“Chicken fingers and fries!” you answer and swing your legs around.

“And something with vegetables,” Dad chides and bumps you gently with his elbow.

“And something with vegetables,” you add, and Derick laughs.

“How about you, Dirk?” your Bro asks and Dirk shrinks into his corner of the bench seat. “Hey, are you mad at me?”

Dirk looks at his feet and slides closer to the wall. “No.”

“I’ll order for him,” your dad says and reaches over to pat Dirk’s head, but he slides back into his seat.

“I’m sorry bud.” Derick slides his arm around Dirk. “I didn’t mean to scare ya, I just don’t want you and Dave pickin’ on each other.”

“Okay,” Dirk says and he looks over at you. “Are we still gonna watch the meteors?”

“Of course, they should be starting soon.” Derick smiles at him. “Maybe one will land nearby and we can have a cool space rock.”

Dinner arrives shortly after and you all eat. Derick fusses at you and Dirk for making messes. Dad and your Bro are talking about boring adult stuff but you don’t really care about that, you focus on coloring all over the placemats with the little package of crayons the waitress gave you. After you’re done you show Dirk and he shows you his, he colored in the pizza neon orange and pink and the cupcakes with blue and green. You colored your pizza in with red and purple and the cupcake green and purple. You trade crayons with him and keep coloring yours until Dad says it’s time to head to the park to watch the meteors.

You’re buckled into the carseat in Bro’s car and you see a meteor falling not too far from where you are. Bro pulls up to the stop light and turns the music down to talk to you.

“Hey that one was really close, wanna go see if it left a big crater?” he asks.

“Yeah!! Then ice cream?” you ask and he nods. “Let’s go, Bro!”

He drives down the road until you’re just outside of town, it’s not that far from the park and it looks like it smashed into a building, like a record shop.

“Damn, I loved coming here when I was a kid,” Derick says and frowns as he stops the car on the side of the road. “Let’s go, Dave. Hop on my back and we’ll walk.”

He takes the key out and opens the back door, letting you climb up onto his back and starting toward the crater.

“Whoa…” you say. You’ve never seen anything like this, you only read about meteors from Roxanne’s big science books that she buys for Roxy. You know that they’re super hot when they land so you have to be careful.

“That’s… weird… there’s, like… there’s something in there,” Derick says and slides into the crater. You have to grip onto his back to keep yourself from falling.

“What is it?” You turn your head to look at it. It’s kinda… blue and orange, like the big dresses at Bro’s graduation.

“Looks like a puppet, almost, doesn’t it?” he says and pats your legs, “Hold on to me, I’m gonna pick it up.”

He bends over and picks it up and stands there for a second. Then a minute. Then five minutes. Your arms are getting tired.

“Bro?” you shake your legs and he gasps. “My legs hurt.”

“Dave, oh…” he shakes his head. “Sorry, I spaced out, I guess? This thing has really blue eyes. I think… I think I’m gonna take it home.”

“What about the rock?” you ask.

“Right, right. The rock…” he zones back out for a second and shakes his head again. “It’s… one second.”

He bends down again and grabs it, it’s all cold and dark grey like metal. He hands it over to you and you hold onto it tightly. It’s still a little warm if you squeeze it, you can’t wait to show it to Dirk. Bro spaces out again, staring at the puppets eyes; you shake your legs and he doesn’t zone back in.

“Bro...” you whine, “Come on, I want ice cream.”

“Dave, I...” he trails off, “Right, ice cream. Sorry, I keep hearing something and I’m trying to listen to it but… I guess it’s nothing.”

He walks you back over to the car and puts the puppet he found into the trunk. He seems fine now that the puppet is out of his hands, so you focus on not dozing off. You really want your ice cream. 

You open your eyes to Dad’s face. “Hey Dave, did you fall asleep?”

“Mmmhmm,” you nod and he holds an ice cream cone out for you. “Thanks Dad.”

“Derick bought it for you,” he says with a smile and looks over at Derick, who’s sitting on the trunk of his car watching the sky with Dirk next to him. “Wanna sit with your brothers or me?”

“You,” you answer, and he lays back in the seat of his car.

“Derick said you found a cool rock, can I see?” he asks and you fish the rock out of your pocket and hand it to him. “It’s very pretty. Are you gonna keep it?”

“Gonna give it to Dirk.” You lick the melty part of your cone and chew on it to get to the ice cream inside. It’s chocolate, your favorite.

You watch the meteors a little longer and end up dozing off again after you finish your ice cream cone.

 

* * *

 

“Good afternoon Dave, how was school?” Bro asks as you climb into the passenger seat of his car. You were finally big enough to sit in the front of his car this year so you’re taking advantage of it.

“S’okay, I guess. Fourth grade stuff,” you shrug and buckle in.

“Hmm,” he hums and starts the car. “I heard you got into a fight today. Why is that?”

You sigh, you didn’t want to talk about this.

“It’s nothin’,” you answer,turning your head to look out of the window, “This kid was picking on me ‘cuz I said a boy was cute.”

“You like boys?” he asks, and starts driving back to your house.

“No!” you huff, “Boys are dumb and girls are better. Besides, it’s gay to like boys and being gay is bad.”

“Who told you that?” he hisses.

“Dirk’s mom said being gay means you go to Hell,” you answer and cross your arms.

“David,” he sits up straighter and so do you, he never calls you that unless he’s gonna say some serious shit. “Being gay or liking boys when you’re a boy isn’t bad. Just like being a girl and liking girls isn’t bad either. You can love whoever you love and that’s not bad.”

You pout, that doesn’t sound right. “But she said-”

“Well David, she’s wrong,” he cuts you off. “Shoulda never let you hang out with her, I knew she’d rub her bullshit off on you but Dad doesn’t listen to me. If you like boys, that’s because that’s just how you are. It’s not wrong to write with your left hand because you’re left-handed, is it?”

“No…” you answer.

“Exactly. So why should loving who you love be any different?” he finishes. You stare back out of the window and consider what he said. Bro can’t be wrong… Bro is never wrong.

“Are you gay?” you ask, and he tightens his hands on the steering wheel.

“Why do you ask?” Bro says carefully.

“‘Cuz you seem to care so much, I dunno. Are you?” You turn your head to look at him.

“I don’t like to label things, but…” he takes a second, “I like men.”

“But you had a girlfriend, how can you like girls and boys?” you ask.

“Dave, sexuality isn’t black and white. You can like girls and boys and that’s okay too.” He leans back in his seat. “Has Dad really not talked about this with you?”

“No, I…” you take a deep breath, “I always thought I was weird because I was a girl once.”

“You were never a girl, Dave. People looked at you and said you were a girl and they were wrong. Who knows you better than you?” he says.

“Nobody, I guess.” you open the door and walk toward the house. Dad is on the front steps, tapping his foot at you.

“I already talked to him, now you need to do your part,” Bro says tersely and slips in the front door.

 

* * *

 

“So Dave,” Dirk says and flops back onto your bed, “Bro’s been acting weird, you know anything about that?”

“Uh, no? Why would I?” you pull your headphones off and look over at him.

“Maybe because y’all are always up in each others shit.” he laughs. “He’s been really spacey and shit. You see that he bought more katanas? It’s enough to make a boy jealous.”

“Why does he even need them? It’s not like someone’s gonna break in and stab him to death for his puppets or anything,” you say.

“He’s a weirdo, I guess. But I’m talking about how he’s always talking to that puppet of his.” He sits up and looks at you. “Remember when we were kids and he got that thing from the crater? What’s even up with that?”

“You say that like we’re not kids, we’re like twelve,” you say and switch off your mixer.

“Uh, maybe you’re twelve, but some of us are big kids.” He’s suddenly near you and flicks your nose.

“You’re fourteen, just ‘cuz you’re in high school don’t mean you’re better than me.” You shove him slightly and he backs off.

“Grammar, David,” he chides, and you flip him off.

“Fuck you,” you say, and he laughs at you.

“Dave, dinner,” Bro swings into the doorway and looks at you. He’s looking a little paler these days because he’s not getting outside enough, or at least that’s what Dad said.

“Bro,” Dirk says tersely.

“Dirk,” he cuts back and walks into your room, ducking slightly because he’s a little too tall for your doorway. “New mix, Dave?”

“Yeah, wanna hear?” you ask, not because you want his approval or anything, but his approval wouldn’t hurt.

You hand him your headphones and he sits down on the bed next to Dirk, who shifts slightly away from him like he’s filled with snakes. He slides them on and you flip your soundboard back on and load up the  [ most recent beat ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqkgWSsXa60) you mixed together with a little bit of your dad’s guitar playing in the background.

“I like it,” he says, “Bring the guitar up a little bit and it’s perfect.” You slide up the guitar’s mix and he gives you a thumbs up. Fucking nice.

“Kids, dinner!” Dad calls up as Bro takes the headphones off and hands them to you.

“Comin’,” Dirk answers back and walks out of your room without a second glance.

You roll your desk chair back and stand up but Derick is still lingering in the doorway. You’re not sure what’s up, he usually doesn’t hang around unless he wants something or you ask him to.

“What’s up?” you ask and flip your mixing boards back off and put your computer into sleep mode.

He hums and eyes you for a second. “You’re gettin’ older, you ever think about sword fighting?”

“Uhh,” you pause, that’s a weird train of thought. “No? Dad doesn’t like us fighting anyway.”

“Not talking about what David wants. Talkin’ about what you want. I could train you.” He shrugs, “Whenever you’re ready, you gotta do it eventually.”

_ “That’s weirdly cryptic… has he been hanging out with Rose?” _ you think.

“Uh, okay?” you answer and he shoves a sword into your hands, it’s pretty nice. It’s a katana with nice detailing on the hilt; it looks like your name is carved into it from what Japanese you can actually read.

“Tomorrow,” he says, and is down the stairs before you can answer.

 

* * *

 

“Not fast enough, Dave.” Derick stretches his arms out, tattooed muscles rippling in the air.

“It’s… not easy… dude,” you exhale and wipe your face with the bottom of your shirt, “I’m not nearly as fast as you.”

“You will be. You just need to work harder,” he gives you a hand and you take it, he pulls you up and hands you a water bottle.“Don’t forget to shower and start wearing this.”

He tosses you a black package, something that feels like a shirt is inside of it. You cautiously open it to find something that looks like a black tank-top inside of it. 

“What’s this?” you ask.

“Surely you’ve noticed that you’re having… issues here.” He pats his chest.

Oh, right. You try not to think about that, if you can help it.

“Read online that this can help with that, let me know if it fits. If not, I can get a different one.” He opens the back door to the house and holds it for you. “Happy thirteenth birthday.”

“Oh yeah, that’s today, isn’t it?” You smile. “Wanna play games later, Bro?”

He nods quickly and shuts the door behind you. “I gotta sew Lil Cal’s arm up, Dirk keeps fucking with him and I’m gonna kick his ass if he does it again.”

“How do you know it’s Dirk and it’s not just because Cal’s old?” you ask innocently, even though you know it’s Dirk doing it. You tell him not to, but Dirk and Derick just don’t get along and Dirk loves fucking with his stuff to piss him off.

“He told me so,” Bro says and disappears up the stairs. You hear his bedroom door open and shut quickly.

“Fighting again? Dad’s gonna be pissed if he finds out,” Dirk says from behind you.

“If you tell him, he’s gonna rip you a new one for not saying anything earlier,” you answer. Dad doesn’t know that you and Derick have been ‘sword training’ and you know he’d be really mad if he found out.

“One of these days you’re gonna get hurt and Derick won’t be able to fix it,” Dirk says. “I don’t like this, you should let me protect you.”

“I’m not a baby, Dirk,” you roll your eyes at him.

Dirk levels his eyes at you, he’s a little scary without his glasses on, kinda like Bro is. “You’re only thirteen, you shouldn’t be sword-fighting a grown ass man! He’s going to hurt you badly, I just know it.”

“Whatever.” You shove him away and head up to take a shower.

“Wanna play Mario Kart with us, Dirk?” you ask over dinner. You’d gotten into a fight earlier so you kinda want to apologize.

“No Dirk. Just you and me, David,” Derick says and stares at Dirk. Dirk stares back and you feel like you could cut the tension between them with a knife, or in your case, a katana.

“Relax y’all, you can take turns,” Dad says from the end of the table, “Dave, did you open any presents yet?”

You shake your head and he slides a box toward you. “These belonged to a friend of mine, I had a feeling you’d like them.”

You carefully tear off the red wrapping paper to see a Certificate of Authenticity for a movie prop. You move that aside and pull out  [ some sunglasses ](https://www.amazon.com/UV400-Unisex-Aviator-Sunglasses-Cleaning/dp/B0028JCS2E) . You pick the certificate back up and give it a once-over.

“No fucking way, Ben Stiller wore these?” you gasp, “On his fucking gross weirdly gaunt face and everything!?”

“They were just sitting around in his house, I may have struck a bargain with him to have him hand ‘em over for ya. He even signed the certificate himself,” Dad says with a smile creeping across his face. “I saw you looking them up on Amazon and I figured you deserved the real thing.”

You slide your pointy shades off and fold them up, setting them on the table, and slide your new aviators on. They’re… perfect. You check your reflection in your phone and smile.

“Did you have to suck his dick for those?” Dirk laughs from across you and Dad shakes his head.

“No, he owed me one. I wrote him out of Ghost Rider after all,” he crosses his arms. “Really saved his ass.”

“He was going to be in Ghost Rider, really?” Derick chimes in.

“Focus word there is ‘was’. Like I said, I saved his ass.” Dad leans back and crosses his arms.

“These are fucking sweet, thanks Dad,” you lean toward him and give him a squeeze. You remember that you haven’t thanked Bro for his present earlier. “Oh, thanks for the… shirt thing earlier, Bro.”

“Shirt thing?” Dad asks.

“He needed a binder, don’t tell me you haven’t noticed how uncomfortable he is.” Derick points his fork at your dad, “You’re his father.”

“I was… going to wait a while and get his permission first,” Dad says, sitting up straighter. “You don’t need to one-up me all the time.”

“I’m not one-upping you, you just need to pay more attention,” Bro says accusingly and stands up quickly, “Which reminds me... Dirk?”

Dirk sits up a little straighter. “What?”

“If you fuck with Lil Cal again, I’ll rip your fucking head off,” Bro says without glancing back. “I’m very aware that it was you. I have eyes everywhere.”

“At least I don’t sword-fight my baby brother in the backyard when my dad is at work,” Dirk says and you hear Derick drop the plate in the sink.

“You  _ what? _ ” Dad drops his fork on his plate. “Dirk, that’s not a funny joke.”

“It’s not a joke. Are you blind to the bruises on Dave’s arms or are you choosing to ignore them on purpose?” Dirk wrenches your arm and pulls up your sleeve for show, sure enough, there are a few lighter bruises there from you blocking the back-end of the sword.

Your dad twists your arm in the light, examining the bruises on you. “Derick, can you explain this?” 

“I asked him to train me,” you cut in and Bro turns to look at you; you can read his expression even through his glasses–surprise.

“I- We… We’ll talk about this later.” Dad lets your arm go and turns to look at Bro. “Please get out of my sight.”

Bro opens his mouth like he’s going to say something and closes it again, you want to say something but he’s gone before you can. You sit there in silence while Dad and Dirk stare at you, you can feel the weight of their gaze without even looking up.

“Dave, I believe you have one more present to open,” Dad says after a moment, sliding a thinner box from in front of Dirk toward you.

You’re not terribly in the mood for presents but you open it anyway. It’s a bit like  [ a soundboard but smaller and it has a lot of buttons. ](https://www.midifighter.com/#64) You look it over and see that the buttons are a little worn down, like they’ve been used a lot.

“Roxy…” Dirk starts, “Roxy helped me make it for you. She- She picked out the buttons. They’re from real arcade machines at Ben’s arcade.”

You nod your head and put it back in its box. You’re not mad at Dirk, you’re just… not really in the mood to talk to him right now. 

“I’m gonna… go for a walk,” you say, Dad nods at you and Dirk looks wounded.

You’re not mad at Dirk.

 

* * *

 

“Wanna play some games with me?” Bro says through the phone, you shift your shoulder so you can hold it better while you slide your binder off.

“Sure man, is Dad cool with you stopping by though? He seemed pretty pissed last time you were here,” you answer.

“Who cares? I gotta get the rest of my stuff anyway.” You hear his car starting. “Be there in five.”

“Later, Bro,” you say back, and hit the ‘End Call’ button.

“Hey, Dad’s on his way back, he’s getting dinner, whaddya want?” Dirk swings his head in your doorway.

“Whatever I guess, don’t care,” you sigh. “Hey, I’m not mad at you.”

“Whatever then, cool,” he answers and turns to leave, but you grab his arm.

“I said I’m not mad at you.” You hold him tighter as he tries to wiggle away.

He rolls his eyes. “I get it, I was just looking out for you. But that was still pretty fucking shitty of me. You should be mad.”

“Dirk, I’m not fucking mad at you! If I was mad, I’d tell you. Don’t think I haven’t noticed you bailing on me and Dad to hang out at your mom’s with Jake.” You point your finger at him accusingly.

“Yeah well, he was hurting you. Someone had to do something because I  _ know _ you weren’t going to,” he yanks his arm away, “You don’t beat on a kid, even if they say it’s fine. That’s fucked up and Bro knows better.”

“You didn’t have to get him kicked out for the month,” you cut back, “I’m mad at you for that, but nothing else.”

“Okay., I gotta call Dad back.” Dirk heads down the stairs and you sit back on your bed.

You’re not mad, you’re annoyed, that’s all. Really.

Your phone pings, Bro says he’s out front and you gotta let him in because he doesn’t have his keys anymore. You leave your room and you can hear Dirk in his room on the phone, nice. At least he won’t see you let Bro in and bitch at you for it. You walk down to the front door and Bro is standing there waiting for you.

“Yo,” he says, and lets himself in.

“Dirk is… here. Why do you have that puppet with you?” you point toward Lil Cal, who’s draped across his shoulder.

“Need him for something,” he says and walks quietly up toward his room.

You follow him, you haven’t been in here in a while. The walls are peppered with holes from shurikens and other small swords, which he’s pulling out of the other walls and tossing into a big pile on his bed. You can see his woodworking stuff shoved into a corner of his desk, you haven’t seen him touch any of it in years.

“Gonna stare at me?” he asks and you shake your head.

“Just lookin’ at everything,” you answer.

He hums and gets back to yanking weapons out of the walls. You wonder how he got so much, but Bro is a pretty mysterious dude and you can’t be with him 24/7.

“Games?” he says, shoving the pile of weapons into a duffle bag.

“Right, games, on it.” You leave where you were lingering in his doorway and head back to your room.

You flick the power switch on the back of your PS3 and load up one of your skating games Bro got you a while back. You flop down on your bed and play a round while you wait for Bro. Dirk still hasn’t left his room but you can hear Dad pull up.

Bro opens your door, Lil Cal pressed against his ear like he’s listening to him, but that’s silly. Puppets don’t talk. He hums at Cal and walks over to you, a sword in hand.

“Dad said we’re not supposed to have swords anymore,” you point out and put your focus back on the screen. You hear Dad yell something downstairs and you ignore it, he’s probably gonna come here and tear into Bro. Not your problem.

“Hey Bro do–” you’re cut off by stabbing pain in your middle. You look up and Bro is standing over you. You look down and his sword is poking into your stomach. You strangle a gasp out and Bro stumbles back, looking terrified. He makes a choking cry in his throat and his hands fly up to his face and he covers his eyes.

“D- Dad…” you try to scream, but it dissolves in your throat. This should probably hurt a lot more than it does.  

Shit, that’s a lot of blood. What if you die? That would suck. 

Dirk would have to see your body and Bro would get in a lot of trouble for killing you. You try to scream again and ah, there we go. That one worked.

“DAD!” you yell and you hear Dirk practically leap out of his skin in the room next to you. Bro is still just standing there, staring at you through his fingers. Why… why would he stab you? Why? Did you do something wrong?

“Dave? What’s…” Dad appears in the doorway, flicking his eyes frantically between you and Bro. Oh great, that’s a LOT of blood and it’s making a mess all over the floor. You should– you should pull the sword out so you don’t fall on it if you pass out.

“Dave don’t!” Dirk jumps out behind Dad and grabs your arm. “Don’t– Don’t pull it. Dad, call someone!”

You’re zoning in and out. Jesus, you must be losing a lot of blood since you’re losing chunks of time. Bro isn’t in the room when you open your eyes, but you can hear Dad screaming at him in the hallway.

“Th– They’re on the way, Dave, hold on,” Dirk says reassuringly while rubbing your head. “It’s okay. You’re not going to die. I won’t let you.”

You open your mouth to say something but Dirk shushes you, “Don’t talk, they’re outside. Just hold on.”

 

* * *

 

“Derick is not allowed near the house again, you understand me, Dave?” Dad says firmly from the end of the hospital bed. The stitches feel tight and uncomfortable, but hey, at least you’re not dead. You nod your head stiffly and he sighs.

“Where did I go wrong?” he muses and leans against Roxanne’s side.

“You didn’t do anything wrong, David,” she pets his head.

“There was nothing you could have done, Mr. Strider,” Rose says from your side where she climbed into the bed next to you. She’s being a bit of a bed-hog but you don’t want to push her out, partly because you enjoy her company, and mostly because you couldn’t if you wanted to.

“Is he…” you sigh, “Is he going to jail?”

“He’s not coming back to the house anymore and he’s not going near you again, but no, he’s not going to jail,” Dirk whispers to you and stops petting your hair for a moment, “I should’ve done something. I should’ve seen this coming.”

Rose looks over at him and narrows her eyes, “Dirk, you know I love you, but now is not the time for your auto-fellatio. Beat the shit out of yourself at a more appropriate time.”

“Rose, language honey…” Roxanne says and shakes her head. “We’ll let you rest for now, Dave. Please let me know when you’ll be home.”

“Doctor says you can head home tomorrow morning, so get some sleep, sweetie,” Dad walks over to you and kisses your head, “Call me if you get bored or if anything changes.”

“Okay,” you answer, and Rose shifts out of the bed and smooths out her skirt.

“Good night,” Dirk says softly and kisses your forehead. He must really feel like shit if he’s being so affectionate in front of everyone. You hate yourself for making him feel that way.

Everyone shuffles out of the room and you’re left lying there alone for a while. Why would Bro stab you? You didn’t provoke him, did you? He didn’t even seem like himself. He’d never attack you without letting you defend yourself. He’s never just attacked you for no reason, and he’d never fight you without asking you first. You roll over and wince at the stitches and try to sleep it off.


End file.
